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AUTHOR: 


KENNETT,  BASIL 


TITLE: 


ROMAE  ANTIQUAE 
NOTITIA 

PLA  CE : 

PHILADELPHIA 

DA  TE : 

1822 


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PRESERVATION  DEPARTMENT 


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Original  Matcrinl  ns  Filmed  -  Hxisting  Dibliugraphic  Record 


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KennoV  ,    Basil,   1G74-1715. 

Rome  antiquae  notitia,    cr,    The  aiitiquitior.   of 
Hone,    in  trro  porta.    To  r/hich  aro  prefixed   tac   -r;- 
cnyc,    concorninr  ti;o  Ronon  loarninc  and  tho  Roman  | 
education,  by  Basil  Konnctt...    ^^--   Anoricar.  -:d... 

Philadelphia,  lliclTnan,   1022. 

j^^y.  1.20^-355  p.  plates  22;j  c::. 


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ANTTQJJITTES  OF  KOMB. 


IN  TWO  PARTS. 


TO  WHICH  ARE  pnEFIXED 


TWO  ESSAYS, 


COSCERNINO  THE  , 

ROMAN  LEARNING  AND  THE  ROMAN  EDUCATION. 


BY  BASIL  KENNETT,  of  C.C.C.  Oxon. 


'Ke  desrnaf  unquam 


Tecum  Grata  ioqui,  tecum  Jiomana  tctustas. 

ClAUDIAX- 


FIRST  AMERICAN  EDITION, 


KMBELISHED    WITH    FIFTEEN   ENGRAVINGS. 


PHILADELPHM : 

HICKMAN  &  HAZZARD  NO.  121,  CHESNUT  STREET 


«      t      • 


•  - »     •     • 


•  * 


•    •      »    •      • 


,•    •.  • 


•  •  •  •     •» 

•  4  «      «       » 

t         •     •     •    *     , 


t    •     •     •   •    • 


TO  HIS  HIGHNESS 


THE  DUKE  OF  GLOUCESTER. 


SIR, 

AMONG  all  the  noble  presages  of  wh  and  honour,  there  is  not 
one  by  wliich  Your  Highness  hath  given  greater  encouragement  to 
the  hopes  of  these  kingdoms,  than  by  a  surprising  curiosity,  and 
imi)atient  desire  of  knowledge.  For  the  satisfiying  of  so  generous 
inclinations.  Your  Highness  cannot  but  seek  an  early  acquaintance 
with  the  Roman  State.  It  must  needs  please  you.  Sir,  to  under- 
stand the  constitution  of  that  people,  before  you  appear  the  rival 
t»f  their  glory;  and  tlie  first  steps  to  both  these  attainments  will  be 
alike  uneasy.  Many  fatigues  are  to  be  undergone  ere  you  surpass 
them  in  action  and  conduct;  and  in  the  same  manner,  before  you 
are  introduced  into  the  more  delightful  scenes  of  their  policy  and 
government.  Your  Highness  should  be  first  presented  with  the 
rougher  prospect  of  their  customs  and  ceremonies. 

For  your  direction  in  so  noble  (though  intricate)  a  path  of  an- 
cient story,  Your  Highness  is  desired  to  accept  this  small  endeav- 
cur;  no  otherwise  than  you  would  a  few  shaddows,  or  a  little 
model,  to  give  you.  Sir,  the  first  notion  of  some  admired  picture, 
or  some  magnificent  buildinjr. 

There  is  one  custom  which,  I  make  myself  believe,  Your  High- 
ness will  read  with  some  pleasure;  I  mean.  Sir,  the  Tojan  Game, 
a  martial  exercise  performed  bj  the  youth  of  the  first  quality  in 
Rome,  under  such  a  captain  as  yourself,  and  deriving  its  original 
from  young  Ascanius;  whom  I  need  not  fear  to  mention  as  vour 

precedent,  since  you  have  already  honoured  him  with  vour'imi- 
tatioTi. 

I 


\y 


THE    EPISTLE    DEDICATORY. 


It  may  be  expected,  perliaps,  that,  out  of  the  many  illustrious 
Roniaiis,  I  should  here  propose  to  Your  Hi^rhness  some,  of  the  most 
celebrated  examples  of  virtue  and  great  acliievements.  But  this 
wouhl  prove  a  needless  piece  of  ser\ice;  since  you  cannot  miss 
your  way  in  the  pursuits  of  the  first,  while  Your  Highness  goes  on. 
like  the  Trojan  prince. 

Matre  Dea  monsfrante  i:iam; 
and  to  the  sec(»nd,  the  shoil  advice,  which  that  hero  gave  his  son, 
will  cni'a*'-e  you  as  the  highest  motive: 

Te,  aaimo  repelentem  exempla  tuorym, 

Et  pater  JEntas  et  avunculus  cxcitet  Hector, 

I  am.  Sir, 

Your  Highness's 
Most  Humble  and 

Most  Obedient  Servant, 

BAI^IL  RENNETT. 


THE 


PREFACE. 


THE  usefalness  of  such  a  design  as  this  not  being  like  to  be 
called  in  question,  I  am  obliged  no  farther  than  to  give  a  short 
history  of  what  attempts  liave  hitherto  been  made  of  the  same 
nature,  with  some  account  of  the  present  undertaking. 


Not  to  make  a  catalogue  of  the  many  tracts  on  particular  sub- 
jects of  Roman  Antiquities,  the  two  authors  most  in  use  for  this 
knowledge  are  Rosinus  and  Godwin  ;  the  first  as  a  full  system, 
the  other  as  an  abridgment  or  compendium.  We  have  nothing 
more  complete  than  Rosinus  taken  all  together ;  but  he  will  ap- 
pear very  deficient  in  many  points,  if  compared  with  other  learned 
men  who  have  laboured  in  the  adorning  some  one  part  of  his 
general  subject.  Thus,  I  believe,  his  Book  of  War  has  scarce 
been  looked  into  since  the  publishing  of  Lipsus's  admirable  com- 
ment on  Poly  bins.  His  accounts  of  the  Habits,  Senate,  Laws, 
and  Funerals,  will  never  be  set  in  competition  with  the  more  ac- 
curate pieces  of  Ferrarius  and  Rubenius,  of  Paulus  jSIanutius,  and 
Kirchman.  Not  to  urge  that  the  Names,  the  Money,  the  Private 
Games,  with  several  lesser  topics,  are  entirely  omitted  ;  and  many 
more  substantial  customs  but  slightly  touched.  The  Paralipo- 
mena  of  Dempster,  which  are  added  in  the  best  editions,  under 
the  name  of  Notes  on  this  author,  seem  for  the  most  part,  barely 
a  transcript  of  common  places  gathered  from  the  classics  and  other 
writers,  with  little  connection  ;  and  therefore,  though  they  serve, 
now  and  then,  for  a  supplement  to  Rosinus,  yet  it  is  impossi])!^ 
thev  should  be  very  instructive. 


V* 


PREFACE. 


Godwin's  Anthologia  (whicli  we  usually  meet  with  in  our 
schools)  besides  that  it  wants  all  the  advantages  which  we  have 
received  from  the  learned  within  these  thrce.score  years,  is  so 
short  and  unsatisfactory  in  subjects  of  the  j^reatest  consequence; 
so  crowded  with  phrases  which  are  to  be  found  in  all  our  Dic- 
tionaries; so  stuffed  with  long  passages  of  Latin  untranslated; 
has  so  little  method,  and  runs  so  dry  and  heavy  in  the  reading-, 
that  i  laucy  it  is  a  general  wish  it  were  exchanged  for  some- 
tliing  else  of  the  same  kind,  of  greater  use,  and  more  agreeable 
entcrlainniciit. 

For  Cantelius  dc  Ilomana  RcpiibUca  ;  to  me  the  Jesuit  seems 
very  unhappy,  that  by  spending  half  his  book  in  giving  us  a  long 
relation  of  the  Roman  wars,  battles,  deaths,  &c.  which  most  pei° 
sons  would  rather  learn  from  the  original  historians,  he  has  so 
straitened  himself  in  tlie  remaining  part,  as  to  pass  for  no  extra- 
ordinary epituniizer.  Besides  that  he  cannot  spare  room  to  set 
down  one  word  of  authority  for  what  he  says. 

As  for  these  papers;  the  two  Essays  of  the  Roman  Learning 
and  Education  are,  1  think,  what  has  not  been  before  attempted 
in  any  Language ;  and  on  that  account  will  be  the  more  easily 
pardoned,  if  not  the  better  accepted  in  the  world.     The   com- 
pendious history  of  tlie  rise,  progress,  and  decay  of  the  state,  has 
this  at  least  to  say  for  itself,  that  it  carries  its  own  credentials 
along  with  it,  in  constant  references  to  the  ancient  writers.     I  will 
not  here  compose  a  table  of  contents  for  the  second  part,  whicli 
has  run  out  into  such  a  length,  as  to  make  the  body  of  the  work; 
only  1  may  hint,  in  a  word  or  two,  that  the  many  omissions  of 
Rosiiius  and    Godwin  are  largely  supplied,  and  scarce  any  thing 
material  ^hat  I  know  of)  passed  by ;— that  the  city,  with  the  fa^ 
mous  structures  of  all  sorts,  are  described  from  the  relations  y^v 
eye-witnesses,  and  authors  of  credit ;— -that  the  laws  whicli  occiur 
in  the   best  classics,  and  often  prove  a  great  hinderance  to  the 
reader,  are  disposed  under  proper  heads  in   a  very  convenient 
manner;  and  the  truest  accounts  of  their  import,  and  the  time 
when  they  were  made,  collected  from  the  most  approved  com- 
mentators, and  from  the  admired  treatise  of  Manutius  de  Legibus 
^'''''''''''^^•— ^^^''^^  in  some  subjects  it  was  thought  proper  to  tollow 
(for  the  most  part)  one  particular  author,  who  had  managed   his 
province  with  universal  approbation;  as  Sigonius  in  the  Comitia 


PREFACE. 


Vll 


I 


and  the  Judgments,  Lipsms  in  the  Art  of  War,  in  the  Gladiators, 
and  in  the  Names,  Kirchman  in  the  Funerals,  and  Brerewood  in 
the  Account  of  the  Money  ;— that  the  curious  remarks  of  Scaliger, 
Casaubon,  Graevius,  Monsieur  and  Madam  Dacier,  are  inserted  on 
many  occasions :  In  short,  that  no  pains  or  charges  have  been 
spared,  which  might  render  the  attempt  truly  serviceable  to  the 
good  end  for  which  it  was  designed,— the  pleasure  and  benefit  of 
the  reader. 

The  great  incorrectness  of  the  Second  Edition  was  occasioned 
by  the  haste  and  the  necessities  of  the  then  unfortunate  proprietor ; 
from  whom  no  sight  of  the  sheets  could  be  obtained,  till  the  whole 
was  so  dishonourably  finished.     Yet  the  necessary  alterations 
and  additions,  before  given  in,  were  inserted  in  their  places.     It 
was  and  is  with  all  gratitude  acknowledged,  that  the  best  part  of 
this  assistance  hath  been  afforded  by  the  late  noble  collections  of 
the  excellent  Graevius ;  a  catalogue  of  w^hich  is  here  subjoined. 
The  compiler  wishes  it  may  be  imputed  not  to  idleness,  but  to 
design,  that  he  hath  borrowed  only  a  mite  from  that  treasury. 
For  intending  an  abridgment,  not  a  full  body,  he  thought  it  alike 
unreasonable,  either  to  swell  the  bulk  above  the  name  and  use,  or 
to  forbear  such  improvements  as  could  scarce  in  honesty  be  de- 
nied ;  either  to  burthen  the  reader  for  the  bookseller's  advantage, 
or  under  a  pretcnre  of  easing  the  former,  to  injure  both.     This 
new  impression  has  not  only  been  amended  by  a  careful  super- 
visal,  but  adorned  by  the  beauty  of  the  letter,  and  of  the  addi- 
tional sculptures.     But  the  chief  recommendation  of  the  design  is 
owing  to  the  favourable  acceptance  and  kind  encouragement  of 
private  persons,  and  of  societies,  especially  of  a  royal  and  most 
flourishing  seminary,  to  which  our  thanks  can  be  returned  in  no 
better  wishes,  than  that  it  may  for  ever  continue  in  the  same 
happy  state,  and  under  the  hke  prudent  government  and  direc- 
tion. 


CONTENTS. 


TWO  PREVIOUS  ESSAYS,  viz, 


Essay     I.     Of  tlie  Roman  Learning, 
Essay  II.     Of  the  Roman  Education, 


I. 
xiii. 


PART  I.  BOOK.  I. 


THE  ORIGINAL,  GROWTH,  AND  DECAY  OF  THE  ROMAN  COM- 
MONWEALTH. 


Chap. 

Oliap. 
Chap. 

Chap. 

C;hap. 

Chap. 

Chap. 


L  Of  Ihe  building  of  the  City,  -  -  -  . 

H.  Of  the  Roman  affairs,  under  the  Kin^s, 

III.  Of  tht^  Homan  aflnirs,  from  the  beginning  of  the  Consular  Go- 
vernment,  to  the  first  Punic  War  -         . 

IV.  Of  tfie  lloman  affairs,  from  the  beginning  of  ti,e  first  Punic 
Uar,  to  tlie  first  Triumvirale,         -  .  . 

V  Of  the  Roman  affairs,  from  the  beginning  of  tlie  first  Triumvi" 
rate,  to  the  end  of  the  twelve  Cx.sars,     - 

VI  Of  the  Roman  all'airs  from  Domitiin  to  the  end  of  Constanline 
the  Great,         -         - 

yil.  Of  the  Ron.an  affairs  from  Constantine  the  Great  to  "the  tak- 
ing  ot  Rome  by  Odoacer,  and  the  ruin  of  tlie  ^Vestern  Empire, 


Page  2r 

29 


ni 


35 


45 


49 


PART  II.  BOOK  I. 


OF    THE    CITY, 
riup.  III.    Ot  Ihe  places  of  worship  ;  particularly  of  the  Temples  «nd 

l-'UCIf  -  ,  . 


5:3 

58 
60 


X  CONTEXTS. 

Chap.  IV.  Of  the  ThciUres,  Amphithtalres,  Circos,  Naumachix,  Odea, 

Sf:i  lia,  and  Xysti,  and  of  the  Campus  Martius, 
Chip.  \  .  Of  the  (Jtirix,  Senacula,  Basilica:,  P'ora,  and  Comltium, 
Chap.  VI.  0»"tlH' Porticos,  Arches,  Cohimiis,  and  Trof)hies, 
Cliap.  V  IF.    Of  the  Bagnios,  Nymphaea,  Aquseducts,  Cloacx,  and  PubUc 

\\'a3s, 


I 


PART  II.  BOOK  11. 


OF    THE    RELIGION    OF    THE    ROMANS. 


Chai'. 
Chap. 

Chap. 
Chap. 
Chap. 
Chap. 
Chap. 


Chap. 
Chap. 
Chap. 
Chap. 
Chap. 


he  Rehgion  and  Morahty  of  the  Romans  in  general, 
the    Liiperci,  Lupcrcaha,  Sic.  of  the  Potitii   and  Pi 


nam 


I.  Of  th< 

If.    Of 

and  of  the  Arval  Brothers, 

III    Of  the  Augurs,  Auguries,  &c. 

IV.   Of  the  Aruspices  and  Pontifices,  .  -  -  - 

\.  Of  the  Flaniines,  liex  Sacrorum,  Salii,  Feciales,  and  Sodales, 

VI    Of  the  Vestals, - 

V  II.  Of  the  Duumviri,  Decemviri,  and  Quindecemviri,  Keepers  of 
the  Sibylline  Writings,  and    of  the  Corybantes,  or  Priests  of  Cy- 

hele,  and  the  Epuh»nes,  - 

VIII    Of  the  Rom  til  Sacrifices,         -  .  -  -  - 

IK.   Of  the  Roniau  Year,  .  -  .  -  - 

.K    Of  the  distinction  of  the  Roman  Days,  -  .  - 

XI.  Of  I'u:  Kalends,  Nones,  and  Ides, 

XII.  The  most  remarkable  Festivals  of  the  Romans,  as  they  stand 
in  the  Kaleiidar,         -- 


65 
69 

72 

76 


80 

82 
85 

87 
90 
95 


96 

100 
102 
105 
107 

108 


CONTENTS. 

f:hap.  Xiy.  Of  the  Provincial  Magistrates  ;   and  fii-st  of  the  Proconsuls, 
Chap.  XV.  Of  the  Provincial  Pra:ior  and  Propraiors,  ihe  Legali,  Quaes- 
t.;rs,  and  Proquacstors,  -  .  .  .  . 

Chap.  XVI    Of  ihe  Comitia,         ...... 

Cha[)   XV  II    O^  the  Roman  Judgments;  and  first  of  Private  Judgments, 
Chap.  XVHI.  Of  Public  Judgments,  .... 

Chap.  XIX    Judgments  of  the  whole  People,  ... 

Chap    XX.  Ot  ilie  Roman  Punishments,  .... 

Chap   XXI.  Of  the   Roman  Laws  in  general,  ... 

Chap   XXII.    Of  the  Laws  in  particular;  and  first  of  those  relating  to 

Religion,         ---...,, 
Chap.  XXIll.   Laws  relating  to  the  Rights  and  Privileges  of  tiie  Roman 

citizens,  ....... 

Chap.  XXIV.  Laws  concerning  Meetings,  &c.        -  -  -  . 

Ch;.p.  XXV.  Laws  relating  .0  the-  Senate,         .  -  -  - 

Chap.  XX\  I.  Laws  relating  lo  the  Magistrates, 
Chap.  XXVII,  Laws  relating  to  public  Constitutions,  Laws,  and  Privi- 

Chap.  X\V  III.  Laws  relating  to  the  Provinces  and  the  Governors  of  them 
Chaj).  XXIX.  Leges  Agraiiae,  or  laws  relating  to  Divisions  of  lands  among 
tilt  people,         .  ..... 

Chap.  XXX    Laws  relating  to  Corn,         -  -  -  -  _ 

Cliajy.  XXXI    L;»\vs  for  the  regulating  Expenses,         -  -  - 

Chap.  XXXIl.  Lau's  relating  lo  Martial  aHairs,         -  -  -         - 

Chap.  X XXIll.  De  Tutelis,  or  laws  concerning  Wardships, 

Chap.  XXXIV.  Laws  concerning  Wills,  Heirs,  and  Legacies, 

Chap.  XXXV.  Laws  concerning  Money,  Usury,  See. 

Chap.  XXXVI.  Laws  toncerning  the  Judges,         .  -  -  - 

Chap   XXXV  II.  Laws  relating  to  Judgments,  -  -  . 

Chap.  XXXV  HI.  Laws  relating  to  crimes,  -  -  .  - 

Chap,  XXXIX.  Miscellany  Laws  not  spoken  of  under  the  general  heads, 


XI 

137 

139 
141 
146 
149 
153 
151- 
159 

161 

163 
165 
167 
168 

170 
,  172 

174 

176 
ibib. 

178 

179 

180 
ibid. 

181 

182 

is.-^ 

189 


PART  11.  BOOK  IV. 


THE    ROMAN    ART    OF    VV^AR. 


PART  11.  BOOK  III. 


OF    THE    CIVIL    GOVERNMENT    OF    THE    ROMANS. 

Chap.  1.  Of  the  general  division  of  the  people,  .  -  - 

Chap.  II.  Of  the  Senate,         ------ 

Chap.  HI    Of  the  general  divisions  of  the  magistrates,  and  of  the  can- 
didates for  offices,  ..---- 

Chap.  IV.  Of  the  Consuls,       ...--• 

Chap.  V    Of  the  Dictator  and  his  Master  of  the  Horse, 

Chap.  VI.  Of 'he   Praetors,  -  -  -  -  - 

Chap.  VH    Of  the  Censors,         .-.--- 
Chap.  V  HI.  Of  the  Quaestors,  -  -  -  -  - 

Chap.  IX.  Of  the  Tribunes  of  the  People,         .  -  -  - 

Chap.  X    Of  the  iE<hles,  -  .  .  .  - 

Chap.  XI.  Of  the  Decemviri,  .  .  -  -  • 

Chap.  XII.  Tribuni  .Mditum  Consulari  Potestate, 

Ch;ip.  XIH.  Civil  Orticersof  less  note,  or  of  less  frequent  occurrence  in 
authors,  and  of  the  Public  Servants,         .  .  -  - 


112 
115 

llf 
121 
122 
125 
126 
127 
129 
130 
131 
132 

Iv)^ 


Chap.  I.  The  Levies  of  the  Roman  Foot,  .... 

Chap.  II.  Levy  and  Review  of  the  Cavalry, 

ClKtp,  HI.  The  military  oath,  and  the  levies  of  the  confederates, 

Chap.  IV.  Of  the  F^vocati,  -  .  -  .  . 

Chap.  y.  Of  the  several  kinds  of  the  Roman  Foot ;  and  their  division 
into  Manipull,  Cohorts  and  Legions, 

Chap.  VI.  The  division  of  the  Cavalry  ;  and  of  the  Allies, 

Chap.  MI.  The  Officers  in  the  Roman  army  :  And,  first,  of  the  Centu- 
rions and  Tribunes;  with  the  commanders  of  the  horse  and  of 
the  confederate  forces,         -  -  -  .  . 

VHI.  Of  the  Legati,  and  the  Imperator,  or  General, 
IX    01  ihe  Roman  arms  and  weapons, 
X.  TI.e  order  of  the  Roman  army  drawn  up  in  battalia, 
XL    The  ensigns  and  colours ;  the  music ;  the  word  in  engage- 
ments;  the  harangues  of  the  generl, 
XH    The  form  und  division  of  the  Roman  camp, 
XIH.  Of  th    duties,  works,  and  exercises  of  the  soldiers. 

XIV  Of  th'   soldiers' pay,         -  .  .  . 

XV  Of  the  military  punishments,       -  •  .  . 
XVI.   Of  the  military  rewards,                 ... 
XVH    The  Roman  way  of  declaring  war,  and  of  making  leagues, 
XV  HI.  The  Roman  method  of  treating  the  people  they  conquer- 
ed ;    a  th  t.K  constitution  of  the  Coloniae,  Municipia,  Prxfecturae, 
and  Provinces,               -               -               -               -               - 


Chap. 
Chap. 
CInp. 
Chap 

Chap 

Chip. 

Cha|j. 

Chap 

Chap. 

Chap. 

Chap. 


192 
194 
196 
197 

198 
199 


200 
203 
206 
209 

212 
215 
217 
221 

222 
224 
231 


233 


fi; 


Xll 


CONT£NI>. 


Chap.  XIX.  The  llotnan  way  of  taking  towns,  with  the  most  remarkjiblti 

invenli(»ns  .  lul  engines  made  use  o\  in  llieir  sieges,  • 

Chap.  XX.  The  Nuval  afi'airs  ot  the  Romans, 


2o6 

240 


I 


Jli  I^  J^  A  Y     1 . 


PART  II.  BOOK.  V. 


MISCELLANY    CUSTOMS    OF    THE    ROMANS. 

Chap.  I.  OF  the  jirivuti-  Sports  .-inr!  Games, 

Chiip.  II.    Of  the  CircensKin  Shows,  and  first  of  the   Pentathlum,  the 

Chariot  Races,  tht-  l.iuhis  Trojic,  and  the  Pyrrhica  Sahalio, 
Chap.  III.  Of  the  Sliovvs  oF  Wild  Btasts,  and  of  the  Naumachiac, 
Chap   IV    Of  the  (.ladiators,  • 

Chap.  V  Of  the  Ludi-Scenici,  or  Stage-Plays;  and  hrst,  of  the  Satires 
and  the  Mimic  Piecrs  ;  with  the  rise  and  advances  of  such  enter- 
taiimients  amoi.g  ih«    Romans,  .  .  _ 

Chap.  VI.  Of  the  Roman  Tragedy  and  Comedy, 
Chap.  VII.  Of  the  Sacred,  Volivf,  and  Funeral  (iamcs, 
Chap    Vin    Ot  the  Roman  Habil,         .  .  .  - 

Chu|).  IX    Of  the  Roman  Marriages,         .  -  -  . 

Cha|..  X.  Of  the  Roman  Funerals,  ... 

Chaf).  XI     Of  the  Roman  Fntt  rtainments,  .  ,  - 

Chap.  Xll.    Of  the  Ronian  Names,         -  .  -  - 

Chaj>.  XIII     Of  the  Roman  Money,  -  -  -  - 

INUKX  Rerum  et  Verborum. 


-217 

251 
261 


274 
27K 
286 
295 
31.] 
o21 
340 
360 

030 


■4 


or  THE  ROMAN  LEARNING, 

WHOEVER  considers  the  strange  beginning  of  the  Roman  state, 
the  frame  and  constitution  on  which  it  was  first  settled,  c.uc*:iier 
with  the  quality  of  the  original  members,  will  tliink  it  no  u^)nder 
that  the  people,  in  that  earl j  age,  should  have  a  kind  of  fierceness, 
or  rather  wildness   in   their  temper,  utterly  averse  to  every  thing 
that  was  polite  and  agreeable.    This  savage  disposition  by  de«crees 
turned  into  a  rigid  severity,  which  encouraged  them  to  rely  ^olt^ly 
on  the  force  of  their  native  virture  and  honour,  without  bein-  be- 
holden to  the  advantage  of  art,  for  the  improvement  of  their  reason, 
or  for  the   assistance  of  their  courage.     Hence  a  grossness   ..f  in- 
vention passed  current  with  them  for  wit.  and  study  was  looke^l  on 
as  an  unmanly  labour ;  especially  while  they  found  that  their  exact 
discipline,  and  unconquered  resolution,  rendered  them  maste.  s  of 
nations  much  more  knowing  than  themselves.    All  this  is  franlly 
acknowledged  by  their  own  authors:   Literal  in  hominc  Rnmano 
go  for  a  wonder  with  Tully.«    And  Virgil,  i„  a  reign  wlien  aH  the 
civility  and  learning  of  the  world  were  transplanted  to  Rome 
chooseth  to  make  the  arts  of  government  and  war  distimruichij.^ 
excellencies  of  his  countrymen  :  ^ 

Exctidetit  ulii  spirant i a  7nni/i\s  sera  : 
Credo  egiiidem.  vivos  ducent  de  marmnre  vultiis  .• 
OriJmnt  causas  7nelius,  c^d  que  vicntas 
Descrihent  radio  et  surgentia  sidrra  dicent  : 
Til  rrgere  i.nperio  popuioi    Romine,  memento 
JLr  tibt  erunt  urtes  ;  paasque  imponere  mot  mi, 
Par  cere  subject  is,  et  debellare  super  bos  }> 

Oth.M's  shall  best  inspire  the  mimic  brass. 

Or  Gill  of  marble  carve  a  living  face  - 

Plead  with  more  force,  and  trace  tlie  iieavenly  roads, 

Oescnhing  the  wide  empire  of  the  gods  • 

I  he  wand'ring stars  to  steady  rules  confine, 

\nd  teach  expecting  mortals  when  the>'ll  shine. 

I  hee  Heaven,  brave  Roman,  fonn'd  for"  hig!,  command  : 

Re  these  thy  arts,  from  thy  victorious  hand 

J  o  make  glad  nations  own  their  peace  bestow»d 

To  spare  the  suppliant,  and  pull  down  the  proud 


*  Uc  Nal.  Deor.  lib.  I.    De  Senectute. 


^  iEneid.  6. 


a 


ESSAY  I. 


The  reayon  which  Horace  gives  for  the  slow  advance&ol'po«?sjr, 
will  hold  in  every  other  part  of  polite  learning : 

Se-  us  enhn  Grwcis  adinovit  acumina  chartis  ^ 

Th«'ir  little  acquaintance  with  the  fine  wits  of  Greece,  who  had 
settled  the  staple  of  arts  and  learning  in  that  country,  deprived  them 
of  an  opportunity  to  cultivate  and  beautify  their  genius,  which  was 
formed  by  nature  capable  of  the  highest  attainments.  Some  kind  of 
poetry,  indeed,  they  had  in  their  rustic  times;  but  then  the  verses 
were  such  rude  dojrgrel  stuff,  as  old  Ennius  describes: 


Quulis  Fawii  v  itesqut  cnntbant^ 


Quum  neqite  Musuruyti  scopulos  quisquani  supirarat, 
JVec  iHctt  atudtosus  ei  at, 

Cicero  is  inclined  to  think,  that  the  old  Romans  might  probably 
have  gained  some  little  knowledge  in  philosophy  from  the  instruc- 
tions of  Pythagoras,  the  famous  author  of  the  Italic  sects  who  flour- 
ised  in  Italy  about  the  same  time  that  the  Tarquins  were  expelled 
the  city.  But  the  ancient  custom  of  singing  to  the  flute  the  praises  of 
famous  men  and  great  entertainments,  is  the  oidy  relick  he  can  find 
of  this  doctrine,  which  was  delivered  in  poetical  numbers.'* 

Their  intercourse  with  Greece  began  upon  their  undertaking  the 
defence  of  that  country  against  Philip  of  Macedon,  who  had  a  design 
on  in  its  liberty,  ab(mt  the  year  of  Rome  555;  when,  according  to 
their  usual  practice,  under  the  name  of  deliverers,  they  made  them- 
selves rather  the  masters  of  that  people.  And  then, 

Gr:Fcia  capita  fcrum  victor citi  cepit,  et  artes 
Intulit  a^rtsti  Lutio.^ 

The  greatest  number  of  eminent  poets,  especially  dramatic  w  ri- 
ters,  flourished  between  the  end  of  the  first  and  the  third  Punic 
wars;  or  from  the  year  of  the  city  512  to  607.  The  most  consider- 
able were  Livius  Andronicus,  Nxvius,  Ennius,  Pacuvius,  Accius, 
Csecilius,  Plautus,  Afranius,  Terence,  and  Lucilius.  And  therefore 
Horace  means  only  the  first  Punic  war,  when  he  says. 

Fa  post  Punka  belia  quietus,  qwrrcre  Cfpit, 

Quid  Sophocles,  et  Thes/hs.  et  JEscliylus  utile  ferrent  : 

Tentavit  quoque.  rem  si  digni  ver cere  posset S 

The  studies  of  philosophy  and  rhetoric  never  made  any  tolerable 
progress  before  the  arrival  of  the  Achaians,  who  in  the  year  of  Rome 
58tl  or  587,  to  the  number  of  a  thousand,  or  more,  were  sent  for  out 
of  their  own  country,  where  they  had  shewn  themselves  disaffected 
to  the  Romans,  and  were  dispersed  in  several  parts  of  Italy.  Among 
these  was  the  famous  Polybius  the  Megalopolitan,  whose  great  parts 

«=  Lib.  2.  epist.  1.        ^  Cicero  Tusc.  Quacst.  lib.  4.        «  Lib.  2.  epist.  1.        ^  Ibid. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  LEARNING. 


m 


and  learning  not  only  gained  him  the  entire  friendship  of  Scipio 
itmylianus  and  Laelius,  two  of  the  greatest  Romans  in  that  age, 
but  procured  too  tlie  release  of  all  his  countrymen  that  remained 
after  some  years  exile. 

iViost  of  that  company,  though  not  equal  to  Polvbius,  yet  being 
the  principal  members  of  the  chief  cities  in  Greece,' brought  away  a 
great  .-.hare  of  the  politeness  and  refined  arts  of  that  country :  and 
being  now  reduced  to  a  state  of  life,  which  took  from  them  all 
thoughts  of  public  action,  they  applied  themselves  wholly  to  the 
pursuits  of  letters,  as  well  to  divert  the  reflections  of  their  banish- 
ment, as  to  improve  and  cultivate  their  mind.? 

In  a  few  years  their  examples  and  instructions  had  wrought  such  a 
strange  conversion  in  the  Roman  youth,  that  the  senate,  fearing  lest 
the  ancient  discipline  should  by  this  means  be   corrupted,  and  the 
minds  of  the  people  softened  and  enervated  by  study,  consulted  liow 
to  put  a  stop  to  this  vein  of  politeness,  so  contrary  to  the  rough  and 
warlike  dispositions  of  their  ancestors.    To  this  purpose  we  meet 
with  a  decree  bearing  date  in  the  consulship  of  C.  Fannius  Srabo 
and  M.  Valerius  Messala,  A.  U.  C.  592,  by  which  it  appears,  -  that 
whereas  Marcus  Pomponius  the  Prsetor  had  made  a  report  to  the 
senate  about  the  philosophers  and  rhetoricians,  the  fathers  did  here- 
by order  the  aforesaid  Praetor  to  take  cognizance  of  the  business, 
and  to  suffer  no  such  men  in  Rome."'* 

The  eager  passion  for  learning,  which  this  prohibition  had  in  some 
measure  allayed,  broke  out  with  greater  heat  and  force  about  six- 
teen  years  after,  upon  this  famous  occasion,  as  the  story  mav  be 
made  up  out  of  several  authors.' 

The  Athenians  having  plundered  Oropus,  a  city  of  BcKotia  the  in- 
habitants made  their  complaint  at  Rome  ;  the  Romans  referrin-  the 
case  to  the  judgment  of  the  Sicyonians,  a  mulct  of  500  talents' was 
iii.p<»sed  on  the  Athenian  state.    Upon  this  account  it  was  resolved, 
that  commissioners  should  be  sent  to  the  Roman  senate  to  procure  a 
mitigation  of  the  fine.    The  persons  pitched  on  for  this  service  were 
Carneades  the  Academic,  Diogenes  the  Stoic,  and  Critolausthe  Pe- 
ripatitic.     About  the   time  of  their  coming  authors  are  very  little 
agreed ;  but  Petavius  and  Cassaubon  fix  it  in  the  six  hundred  and 
third  year  after  the  building  of  Rome.    Most  of  the  studious  youths 
immediately  waited  on  the  old  gentleman  at  their  arrival,  and  heard 
them  discourse  frequently  with  admiration.  It  happened,  too,  that 
they  had  each  of  them  a  different  way  in  their  harrangues:  for  the 

«  Cassaubon.  Chronol.  ad  Polyb.  et  Comment,  ad  Sueton.  de  Gramraat 
_  S  leton.  de  Clur.  Grammul.  cap.  1.  A.  Gell.  lib.  15.  cap.  11. 
1  lut.  Cat.  major.  A.  Cell.  lib.  7.  cap.  U.  Macrob.  Sat.  1.  cap  Li 


IV 


ESSAY  1. 


I 


felociaeiu  e  ol  Carneades  was  violent  and  rapid,  Critolaus.'s  neat  and 
j^mdoth,  that  of  Dioij;enes  modest  and  hober.    Carneadfs  one  daj 
held  a  tull  and  accurate  dispute  conccrnin;^  justice;  the  next  day  hf 
refuted  all  tlwit  he  had  said  before,  by  a  train  of  contrary  arguments, 
and  (juite  took  away  the  virtue  that  he  seemed  so  tirmly  to  have  esta- 
blished,   This  he  did  to  shew  his  faculty  of  confuting  all  manner  of 
possitive  assertions;  for  he  was  the  founder  of  the  secon  I  academy, 
%  sect  which  denied  that  any  thing  N\as  to  be  perceived  or  under- 
stood in  the  world,  and  so  introduced  an  univer>>al  suspension  of  as- 
sent.    It  soon  flew  about  the  city  tiiat  a  certain  (Srecian  (by  whom 
they  meant  Carneades,)  carrying  all  befoie  him,  had    impressed  so 
strange  a  love  upon  the  young  men,  that,  quitting  all  their  pleasures 
and  pastimes,  they  run  mad,  as  it  were,  after  philosophy.     This  to 
the  generality  of  people  was  a  very  pleasant  sight,  and  they  rejoiced 
extremely  to  find  theii-  sons  welcome  the  Grecian  literatuie  in  so  kind 
a  manner.   Hut  old   Cato  the  censor  took  it  much  to  heart,   fearing 
lest  the  youth,  being  diverted  by  such  entertainments,  should   ]>re- 
fer  the  glory  of  speaking  to  that  of  acting.    So  that,  the  fame  of  the 
philosophers  increasing  every  day,  he  resolved  to  send  them  pack- 
ing as  soon  as  possible.     \\  ith  this  design,  cominq;  into  the  senate, 
he  accused  the  magistrates  for  not  giving  the  ambas>ad(»rs  a  speedier 
dispatch,  thcv  being  persons  who  could   easi'v    persuade   the   peo- 
ple to  whatever    <hey   pleaseil.     lie  ail  vised,  th'^efore,  that  in    all 
haste  something  should  be  concluded  on,  that,  being  sent  home  to 
their  own  schools,  they  miij;ht  declaim  to  the  Grecian  children,  and 
the  Roman  vouth  might  be  obedient  to  their  own  laws  and  govern- 
ors as  forme'ly. 

The  same  grave  disciplinarian,  to  fright  his  son  from  any  thing  of 
the  Grecians,  used  to  pronounce,  like  the  voice  of  an  oracle,  in  a 
harsher  and  louder  tone  than  ordinary,  that  the  Romans  would  cer- 
tainly be  destroyed,  when  they  began  once  to  be  infected  w  ith  Greek. 
Hut  it  is  very  likely  Ihat  he  afterwards  altered  his  mind;  since  hi* 
learning  Greek  in  his  old  age  is  a  known  st(»ry,  and  depends  on 
good  authority.'  Lord  Bacon  says,  it  was  a  judgment  upon  him  for 
his  former  blasphemies. "^ 

The  ambassadors,  upon  the  motion  of  Cato,  had  a  (|uick  di&mis-. 
hion,  but  left  so  happy  an  inclination  in  the  young  gentlemen  to 
philosophy  and  good  letters,  that  they  grew  every  day  more  ena- 
moured of  study;  and  shewed  as  much  diligence  in  their  pursuits 
of  knowledge  as  they  liad  ever  d'»ne  in  tUeir  applications  to  war. 

In  the  year  of  the  city  608  or  609,  Greece,  which  had  hitherto  re- 
tained some  shadow  of  liberty,  though  it  had  been  a  long  while  at  the 

'  Cicfjo  \cad.  1.  De  Sfnect.  Quinctilian,  Inst.  lib.  12.  cap.  11. 
^  Advunccment  of  Learning,  bi.ok  1. 


OF    THE    ROMAN    LEARNING.  y 

Romans  command,  was,  upon  some  sliglitoccasion,entered  with  an 
army  under  Mummius,  and  reduced  to  the  common  state  of  the  other 
con^juered  nations.  This  exploit  happening  in  the  very  same  year 
that  Carthage  was  destroyed  by  P.  Scipio  iLmylianus,  it  will  be  very 
pleasant  to  observe  the  different  genius  of  the  two  commanders,  who 
had  the  honour  of  these  achievements;  and  to  see  how  politeness 
and  the  ancient  simplicity  were  now  at  strife  in  Rome.  Mumniius 
was  so  far  unskilled  in  the  curious  inventions  of  art,  that  after  the 
taking  of  Corinth,  when  a  great  number  of  admirable  pictures  and 
statutes,  by  the  best  masters,  came  into  his  hands,  he  told  the  ser- 
vants that  were  to  carry  them  into  Italy,  if  they  lost  any  by  the 
way,  they  should  certainly  find  him  new  ones  in  their  room.' 

Scipio,  on  the  other  hand,  to  the  courage  and  virtue  of  ancient 
heroes,  had  joined  a  profound  knowledge  of  the  sciences,  witli  all 
the  graces  and  ornament  of  wit.  His  patronage  was  courted  by  every- 
one that  made  any  figure  in  learning.  Panaetius,  whom  Tully  calls 
the  prince  of  the  Stoics,  and  the  incomparable  historian  Polybius, 
were  his  bosom-friends,  the  assisters  of  his  studies  at  home,  and  the 
constant  companions  of  his  expeditions.™  To  which  may  be  added 
the  remark  of  a  very  great  man,  that  he  passed  the  soft  hours  of  his 
life  m  the  conversation  of  Terence,  and  was  thought  to  have  a  part 
in  the  composition  of  his  comedies." 

The  highest  pitch  of  the  Roman  grandeur,  in  the  time  of  the  com- 
monwealth, is  thought  to  have  been  concluded  before  the  final  reduc- 
tion of  Carthage  and  of  Greece;"  and  the  common  reason  assigned 
for  its  decay  is,  that  Athens,  being  now  become  the  mart  of  the  world 
for  wit  and  breeding,  imported  the  arts  of  debauchery,  among  her 
more  noble  productions,  to  Rome;  and  maintained  their  luxury,  as 
well  as  their  studies  and  conversations,  at  her  charge.  But  however, 
their  ancient  prowess  might  decline,  it  is  certain  the  conquest  of  the 
great  empire  of  science  was  now  carried  on  more  vigorously  than  ever. 
The  tide  of  learning  and  humanity  ran  every  day  with  greater  force, 
and,  after  the  famous  Cato,  scarce  met  wath  any  to  oppose  it.  Be- 
tween this  period  and  the  death  of  Sylla,  (scarce  twenty  years,)  the 
most  renowned  orators,  Crassus  and  Antony,  ruled  the  Forum,  who 
were   succeeded  by  Sulpicius,  Cotta,  Hortensius,  and  other  great 
names  recorded  by  Tully  in  his  Brutus.  At  the  same  time,  the  two 
Scacvolas,  the  Augur  and  the  Pontiff,  advanced  civil  law  to  its  full 
perfection.  And  Lucretius  (who  wrote  about  the  time  of  the  Jugur- 
than  war,)  as  he  excelled  even  the  Grecian  disciples  of  Epicurus  in 

'  Veil.  Patcrc.  lib.  1  cap.  13.  "^  Ibid. 

"  Sir  Win.  Temple's  Miscell.  p   2.  Essay  1. 
*■  Cassaubon  Chronolog.  ad.  Polyb. 

3 


VI 


ESSAY    I. 


explaiiiiriGj  ami  defending  his  doctrine,  so  he  directs  us  where  to  be- 
gin, in  fixini;  the  hc-ij^ht  and  ])uritv  of  the  Roman  poesy  and  stvle,» 
rhilos()j)hers  were  now  in  universal  honour  and  request,  beinir  invit- 
ed i'vom  all  paits  for  the  education  antl  instruction  of  voun"-  noble- 
men,  and  for  advice  and  assistance  of  the  greatest  ministers  of  state. 
And  what  is  more  surprising:,  arts  and  civility  were  rather  encour- 
aged  tlian  frighted  away  by  the  wars  :  and  the  muses,  like  their  pa- 
froness  Minerva,  had  very  <»ften  their  residenc  e  in  the  camp.  Svlla 
himself  wrote  two  and  twenty  books  of  memoirs,  and  contributed, 
in  an  extraordinary  manner,  to  the  advancement  of  knowledge,  bj 
transporting  to  Ronu'  the  famous  library  of  Apelliconthe  Peripatetic, 
in  whiih  were  most  of  Aiistotle  and  Theopluastus's  works,  which 
had  been  long  unknown  to  the  greatest  part  of  their  followers.' 

Sylla's  rival,  Marius,  was  the  only  man  of  note  in  that  a2:e,  who 
retained  the  old  sourness  and  unpolished  manner  of  the  first  Ro- 
mans. He  indeed  would  never  study  Greek,  nor  sufter  tliat  lan- 
guage to  be  used  in  any  matters  of  consequence;  as  thinking  it  ri- 
diculous to  bestow  time  in  that  learning,  the  teachers  whereof  were 
little  better  than  slaves.* 

But  then  Lucullus,  who  succeeded  S^lla  in  the  military  glory,  as 
to  matters  of  learning,  was  much  his  superior.  In  his  youth  he  had 
so  absolute  a  command  of  (he  two  only  tonirues  then  in  request,  that, 
upon  a  project  of  compiling  a  history,  he  fairly  took  his  chance, 
whether  he  should  write  in  Greek  or  Latin,  in  prose  or  verse.  And 
after  all  his  feats  of  arms  in  the  Mitliridatic  war,  when  he  was  de- 
prived of  his  command  by  the  j)revailing  faction  of  I'ompev,  the  great 
employment  of  his  privacy  and  retreat  was  the  promoting  of  knowl- 
edge. With  this  design  he  built  a  library,  furnished  it  with  a  vast 
number  of  books  fairly  transcribed,  and  made  it  free  to  all  comers. 
The  walks  and  schools,  which  he  raised  near  the  library,  were  always 
full  of  Grecians,  who  retiring  thither  from  business,  diverted  one  an- 
otlier  witli  conferences  and  debates,  in  the  same  manner  as  was  used 
in  their  own  country;  making  advantage  of  friendly  conversation  to- 
ivard  the  improvement  of  their  understandings.  Lucullus  himself 
often  studied  there,  sometimes  disputing  ^vith  the  learned  men,  and 
sometimes  giving  his  advice  in  matters  of  state  to  those  that  desired 
it;  though  he  meddled  with  no  pubhc  business  in  person.  He  was 
very  well  versed  in  all  the  sects  of  philosophy,  but  adhered  closely  to 
the  old  academy;  whereas  his  friend  Cicero  was  a  great  stickler  for 
the  new.    Hence  it  is  that  we  find  the  latter  book  of  the  academic 


P  Sir  Will  Temple's  Miscel!.  p.  2  essay  1.        '  Ibid  et  Strabo.  lib.  13. 
1  Plutarchus  in  S) iia.  j  Piutar,  in  Mario. 


OF    THE    ROMAN    LEARNING. 


Vll 


questions  inscribed  Lucullus  ;  where  that  irreat  man  is  brouirht  in 
defending  the  opinions  of  his  sect.t^  ' 

The  whole  majesty  of  language,  and  height  of  eloquence,  shone 
out,  as  it  were,  all  at  once,  in  Tully  ;  so  that  Paterculus  has  well 
observed,  "  Delectari  ante  eum  paucissimis,  mirari  vero  neminem 
possis,  nisiautab  illo  visum,  aut  qui  ilium  viderit."i' 

Perhaps  the  same  remark  will  hold  good  in  his  pliilosopliy  ;  or  at 
least,  with  respect  to  his  predecessors,  the  latter  study  will  yield 
him  an  equal  praise  with  the  former.  For  to  handle 'this  subject 
in  Latin  prose  was  purely  a  new  province  reserved  for  his  manage- 
ment, and  left  untouched  till  that  time  by  the  learned.  Thus  much 
he  lets  us  know  in  several  parts  of  his  works,  particularly  in  his 
poem  to  the  Tusculan  (pio&tions  ;  where  at  the  same  time  he  giyes 
us  a  short  account  of  the  progress  and  advances  of  arts  among  the 
Romans,  infinitely  worth  the  transcribing;  *' Meuin  semper  judi- 
cmm  fuit,  he.  It  was  always  my  opinion,"  says  he,  "that  either 
our  countrymen  have  been  more  happy  in  their  inventions  of  every 
kind  than  the  Greeks;  or,  that  they  have  made  a  vast  improvement 
in  whatever  they  borrowed  from  that  nation,  auil  thought  worth 
their  while  to  pcdish  and  refine.  For  as  to  the  conduct  of  life  and 
the  rules  of  breeding  and  behaviour,  together  with  the  management 
of  family  concerns,  we  are  masters  of  more  exactness,  and  have  a 
mucli  genteeler  air.  If  we  ascend  to  the  governing  and  regulating 
ol  public  spirits,  our  ancestors  may  justly  claim  the  preference  in 
this  part  of  wisdom,  on  account  of  their  admirable  laws  and  insti- 
tutions. In  military  afiairs  we  have  made  a  more  considerable  ad- 
vance than  any  before  us,  which  is  owing  no  less  to  our  discipline 
than  to  our  native  bravery. 

*  Tis  true,  Greece  has  always  had  the  renown  beyond  us  for  their 
attainments  in  every  part  of  learning;  and  it  was  an  easy  matter 
to  con(|uer  when  they  met  with  no  opposition.  Poetry,  the  most 
ancient  sort  of  writing,  had  but  a  late  reception  among  us ;  for  Li- 
vms  Andronicus  presented  his  first  dramatic  piece  510  (it  should 
be  014)  years  after  the  building  of  Rome,  in  the  consulship  of  C. 
Claudius,  son  to  Appius  Caecus,  and  M.  Tuditanus,  a  year  before 
the  birth  of  Ennius,  who  is  senior  to  Plautus  and  Nsevius." 

As  he  goes  on,  he  attributes  the  slow  progress  of  poesy  to  the 
want  of  due  reward  and  encouragement ;  and  tells  us,  that,  in  a 
public  oration  of  Cato's,  it  was  objected  as  a  reproach  to  Marcus 
Kobilior,  that  he  had  carried  the  poet  Ennius  with  hiin  into  ^tolia, 
when  he  went  to  reside  there  as  governor.  That  there  was  no  part 
of  the  mathematics  (which  the  Grecians  esteemed  so  honourable  a 
study)  of  use  in  Rome,  but  the  bare  practice  of  measuring,  and 
'  Plutarchus  in  Lucullo.  »  Hjgt.  lib,  1.  chap.  17, 


Vill 


ESSAY    I. 


castinji^  accounts.  For  oratory,  he  observes  that  the  Romans  em- 
braced this  very  soon,  but  at  first  without  the  advantaires  of  a 
learned  institution  ;  which  were  afterwards  added  with  so  much 
success,  as  to  set  them  on  equal  terms  with  the  most  eUKjuent  mas- 
ters of  Greece  :  but  that  philosophy  had  hiin  neglected  till  tliat 
time,  and  had  met  with  no  eminent  author  to  adorn  it  in  the  Latin 
tonj^ue.  This  therefore  he  piofesseth  to  undertake  as  his  proper 
office;  and  how  happily  he  succeeded  in  the  attempt,  his  works  on 
that  subject  will  be  a  lastiufij  argument. 

If  we  compare  Tully  with  his  iriami  Atticus,  we  find  tliem  both 
together  answering  the  two  excellent  ends  of  philosophy  ;  the  ser- 
vice of  the  public,  and  the  private  ease  and  trancjuility  of  an  inof- 
fensive life.  The  former  directed  all  his  studies  to  action,  in  the 
defence  of  the  commonwealth,  and  the  opposing  all  designs  on  its 
liberty ;  the  latter,  by  never  entering  the  scene  of  business,  made 
himself  equally  honoured  and  courted  by  all  parties,  from  Sylla  to 
Augustus  Caesar.  The  one  gained  to  himself  more  glory,  the  other 
more  hearty  love  and  esteem;  and  I  believe  most  persons  would  be 
inclined  to  follow  Atticus,  and  to  commend  Cicero. 

Crassus,  Pompey,  Antony,  Caesar,  Cato,  and  Brutus,  who  made 
such  a  noise  in  the  world,  almost  all  at  the  same  time,  were  the 
most  refined  scholars  of  their  age.  The  first  three  indeed  confined 
themselves  to  the  practice  of  elo(|uence,  till  they  were  wholly  di- 
verted by  the  profession  of  arms,  l^ut  the  last  three,  as  they  out- 
slnme  the  former  in  oratory,  so  they  had  made  much  greater  ad- 
vances in  the  other  parts  of  human  learning.  Poetry  and  philosophy 
were  the  diversion  of  Caesar's  leisure  hours  ;  and  his  history  will 
be  the  model  of  good  language  as  long  as  himself  is  the  example  of 
great  achievements. 

The  whole  conduct  of  Cato's  life  shows  him  a  greater  stoic  than 
the  most  rigid  professors  of  that  sect ;  for,  however  they  mio-ht 
equal  him  in  knowledge,  it  is  certain  he  shamed  them  in  practice. 
Brutus  had  been  a  hearer  of  all  the  sects  of  philosophers,  and 
made  some  proficiency  in  every  one.  When  a  soldier  under  Pom- 
pey, in  the  civil  wars,  all  the  time  that  he  was  in  the  camp,  except 
what  he  spent  in  the  general's  company,  he  employed  in  reading- 
and  study.  And  the  very  day  before  the  decisive  battle  at  Phar- 
salia,  though  it  was  then  the  middle  of  summer,  and  the  camp  under 
many  inconveniences,  and  he  himself  extremely  harassed  and  out 
of  order;  yet  while  others  where  either  laid  down  to  sleep,  or  taken 
up  with  apprehensions  about  the  issue  of  the  fight,  he  spent  all  his 
time,  until  the  evening,  in  writing  the  epitome  of  Polybius.'' 

"  Plutarch,  in  Brut. 


OF    THE    ROMAN    LEARNING. 


IX 


It  is  universally  known,  that  the  Roman  literature,  as  well  as 
empire,  was  in  its  highest  ascendant  under  Augustus.  All  the 
delicate  fruits,  transplanted  from  Greece,  were  now  in  their  blos- 
som, being  cherished  by  the  calmness  of  the  season,  and  cultivated 
by  the  hand  of  an  emperor. 

I  have  often  wondered  that  Maecenas  should  all  alonq:  carrv  awav 
the  sole  honour  of  encouraging  the  wit  and  knowledge  of  this  reign  ; 
when  it  seems  probable  that  he  acted  only  in  imitation  of  his  mas- 
ter;  as  the  humours  of  princes  commonly  determine  the  inclina- 
tions of  their  favourites.  The  quite  contrary  happened  to  the 
other  great  minister  Agrippa;  the  glory  of  his  exploits  was  referred 
to  the  emperor,  whilst  the  emperor's  bounty  advanced  Maecenas's 
esteem.  And,  indeed,  the  celebration  of  Augustus's  triumphs,  and 
the  panegyrics  on  his  piety,  were  suflicient  to  set  him  out  in  the 
most  taking  colours  :  But,  had  Maecenas  been  denied  the  shining- 
character  of  a  patron,  he  might  have  rolled  on  in  silence  amon<»- 
Epicurus's  herd,  and  we  should  scarce  have  seen  him  drawn  bvthe 
poet's  hands,  unless  in  the  same  posture  as  Silenus  : 

Injiatuni  liesterno  vetias,  vt  semper ^  laccho  : 
Sevta  prtcul  capiti  tant.m  delapsa  jacebuntf 
Ht  gravis  attrita  pendebat  caniharus  ansa.'''' 

But,  whichever  of  the  two  was  the  nobler  patron,  Augustus  must 
be  acknowledged  to  have  been  the  greater  scholar.  And  for  proof, 
we  need  go  no  farther  than  Suetonius,  w  ho  has  spent  no  less  than 
«*ix  chapters  on  the  learning  of  this  emperor.  His  prodigious  in- 
dustry in  the  study  of  eloquence  and  liberal  arts ;  his  labour  in 
composing  every  thing  that  he  spoke  in  public,  though  he  had  a 
very  good  faculty  at  extempore  harangues  ;  his  polite  and  clean 
style  ;  his  accurate  knowledge  of  the  Grecian  literature,  by  the 
assistance  of  their  best  masters  of  rhetoric  and  philosophy ;  the 
thirteen  books  of  the  history  of  his  own  life  ;  his  exhortation  to 
philosophy,  with  several  other  works  in  prose ;  his  book  of  hexa- 
meters, and  another  of  epigrams,  all  considered  together,  may  equal 
him  with  the  most  learned  princes  in  story. 

Being  thus  arrived  at  the  highest  point  of  the  Roman  attain- 
ments, it  cannot  be  unpleasant  to  look  about  us,  and  to  take  a  short 
survey  of  the  productions  in  every  kind.  Eloquence  indeed  will 
appear  at  some  distance,  rather  in  the  Augustan  age  than  in  Au- 
gustus's reign,  ending  in  Cicero,  at  the  dissolution  of  the  common- 
wealth. Not  that  his  death  was  properly  the  ruin  of  his  profession  ; 
lor  the  philosopher  might  have  lived  much  longer,  and  yet  the  ora- 
tor have  been  gone,  when  once  the  ancient  liberty  was  taken  away, 

^'  Virgil.  Kclo^.  6.. 


tJ 


X  ESSAY    I. 

which  inspired  him  with  all  his  lofty  thou«i!;hts,  and  wa;*  the  verv 
soul  of  his  harangues.  Hut  tlien  the  bounds  of  history  and  poesy 
were  fixed  under  tlie  emperor's  protection  by  Livy,  Virgil,  and 
Horace.  And  if  we  desire  a  view  of  philosophy,  the  two  poets  will 
account  for  that  as  well  as  for  their  own  province. 

I  think  none  will  deny  Horace  the  elogy  given  him  by  a  celebrated 
writer,  "  that  he  was  the  greatest  master  of  life,  and  of  true  sense  in 
the  coiuhict  of  it.'*«  Especially  since  the  author  of  that  judgment  is 
one  of  those  whom  (had  he  lived  then)  Horace  himself  would  have 
willingly  chosen  for  his  judge  :  and  inserted  in  that  short  cataUx'^ue  of 
men  of  wit  and  honour,  whom  he  desired  should  approve  his  labours. > 

Whether  or  no  the  common  saying  be  true,  that,  if  all  arts  and 
sciences  were  lost,  they  miu;ht  be  found  in  Virgil,  it  is  plain  he  dived 
very  deep  into  the  mysteries  of  natural  science,  which  he  sets  fortli 
in  all  its  ornaments,  in  several  parts  of  his  sublime  work.  And  in 
that  admirable  place  of  his  second  Georgic,  when  he  expresseth,  in 
a  sort  ot  transport,  his  inclinations  to  poesy,  he  seems  to  direct  its 
whole  end  towards  the  speculations  of  the  philosophers,  and  to 
MKike  the  Muses  hand-maids  to  Nature: 

Me  vero  prim  in  dulces  ante  oumra  Musoc, 
QuaritVL  sacri.  ftro  in^enti  percuUus  aviorc, 
Jccipiant  :  calK/uc  vins  et  snUru  niousticnt, 
Deftctus  s'llis  varros    /.uncet/ue  labores  : 
Lfu/c  trenior  trtris  qii  •  w  marii  ilt :  fumescarJ, 
Obicibus  rnptis   runusr/uc  in  scipsa  resiilant  : 
QuiUt,:ntum  Ocear.'i  propcrent  ae  tin^cre  soles 
liybenii  f  vef  qua  turdiis  mora  noctibus  obstet. 

For  mv  the  first  (i.-sire  whicii  does  coiitroul 

All  the  inferior  wheels  thai  move  my  suu!. 

Is,  t!iat  the  musi-  me  her  hitjh  priest  woultl  make  ; 

Into  her  holv  scenes  of  m\stcry  take, 

■Vui,  opoij  there,  to  my  miiurs  pureed  eye, 

Those  wonders  which  to  sense  the  gods  deny  ; 

liovv  in  the  moon  such  change  of  sh:»pcs  is  found  ; 

I'he  moon,  the  chunj^ing-  world's  eternal  bound: 

^Vhal  shakes  the  solid  earth  :   what  stronj^  disease 

Dires  trouble  tlie  far  centre's  itncient  ease  ; 

\\  hut  makes  the  sea  retreat,  and  what  advance  ; 

>  arieties  too  regular  for  <  hance  : 

\Vhaf  (iiivcs  the  chariot  on  of  winter's  light. 

And  stops  the  lazy  waggon  of  the  night  cowlkv. 

After  Augustus,  the  Roman  muses,  as  well  as  the  eagles,  stooped 
irom  their  former  height ;  and  perhaps  one  of  these  misfortunes  might 
be  a  necessary  consequence  of  the  other.  I  am  very  sorry  when  I  find 
either  of  them  attributed  to  the  change  of  government,  and  the  settle- 
ment of  the  monarchy ;  for,  had  the  maxims  and  the  example  (»f  Au- 
gustus been  pursued  by  his  successors,  the  empire,  in  all  probability, 
might  have  been  much  more  glorious  than  the  commonwealth.     But 


ON   THE    ROMAN    LEARNING. 


IX 


"  Sir  Will.  Temple's  Miscell.  p.  2.  Essay  2. 


Book  l.Sat.  10. 


while  a  new  scheme  of  politics  was  introduced  by  Tiberius,  and  the 
Caesars  bejran  to  act  what  the  Tarquins  would  have  been  ashamed 
of,  the  learning  might  very  well  be  corrupted,  together  with  the 
manners  and  the  discipline,  antl  all  beyond  any  hopes  of  a  recovery. 
It  cannot  be  denied,  that  some  of  the  worst  princes  were  the  most 
passionate  affecters  of  learning,  particularly  Tiberius,  Claudius,  and 
Nero;  but  this  rather  deterred  other  men  Vrom  such  attempts,  than 
encouraged  them  in  their  pursuits;  while  an  applauded  scholar  was 
as  much  envied  as  a  fortunate  commander;  and  a  rival  in  wit  ac- 
counted as  dangerous  as  a  contender  for  the  empire  ;  the  first  being 
certainly  the  more  hard  combatant,  who  dared  challange  his  mas'^ 
ters  at  their  own  weapons. 

Whatever  essays  were  made  to  recover  the  languishing  arts  under 
Vespasian,  Titus,  and  Domitian  (for  this  last  too  was  an  encoura^rer 
of  poesy,  tlumgh  he  banished  the  philosophers,)  scarce  served  to  ally 
better  purpose,  than  to  demonstrate  the  poor  success  of  study  and 
application  while  the  ancient  genius  was  wanting. 

In  the  six  next  reigns  immediately  following  Domitian,  learning 
seems  to  have  enjoyed  a  sort  of  lucid  interval,  and  the  banished  fa- 
vourite was  again  admitted  to  the  court,  being  highly  countenanced 
and  applauded  by  the  best  set  of  princes  Rome  ever  saw. 

Not  to  enquire  after  the  productions  of  the  other  reigns,  the  useful 
labours  of  Tacitus,  Suetonius  and  Pliny  Junior,  will  make  the  -overn- 
ment  of  Trajan  more  tamous  tlian  all  his  feats  of  arms.    If  they  are 
less  happy  in  their  language  than  the  ancients,  in  other  respects,  per- 
haps,  they  have  overmatched  them ;  the  historians  in  the  delicacy  of 
politics,  and  the  sincere  truth  of  their  relations ;  and  the  orator  in  his 
wit  and  good  sense.  If  we  add  to  these  Plutarch,  who  wrote  most  of 
his  works  m  Rome,  and  was  honoured  by  Trajan  with  the  consulship, 
and  Quintihan,  who  flourished  a  very  little  time  before;  they  may 
pass  lor  the  twilight  of  learning  after  the  sun-set  of  the  Au-ustan 
age   or  rather  be  resembled  to  a  glimmering  taper,  which  "asts  a 
double  light  when  it  is  just  on  the  point  of  expirino-. 

It  is  an  observation  of  Sir  William  Temple,  that  all  the  Ltin 
books,  which  we  have  until  the  end  of  Trajan,  and  all  the  Greek  un- 
til the  end  of  Marcus  Antoninus,  have  a  true  and  very  estimable 
value;  but  that  all,  written  since  that  time,  owe  their  price  purely 
to  our  curiosity,  and  not  their  own  worth  and  excellence 

But  tlie  purity  of  the  tongue  was  long  before  corrupted,  and  ended, 

m  Sir  W  ilham  Temple's  judgment,  with  Velleius  Paterculus  under 

i  ibenus    The  reason  he  assigns  for  this  decay  is,  the  strange  resort 

of  the  ruder  nations  to  Rome,  after  the  conquest  of  their  own  country. 

Ihus  the  Gauls  and  Germans  flocked  in  multitudes  both  to  the 


Xll 


ESSAY    I. 


army  and  tlic  city,  after  the  reducing;  of  those  parts  by  Julius  Cae- 
sar, Augustus  and  Tiberius,  as  many  Spaniards  and  Syrians  l»ad 
done  before,  on  the  like  account:  but  the  greatest  continence  of  for- 
ei"-ners  followed  upon  the  victories  of  Trajan  in  the  east,  and  his 
establishment  of  the  three  new  provinces,  Armenia,  Assyria  and 
Mesopotamia.  And  though  Adrian  voluntarily  relinquished  these 
new  acquisitions,  yet  the  prodigious  swarms  of  the  natives  who  had 
waited  on  his  predecessor's  triumphs,  were  still  obliged  to  live  in 
Roinr,  in  the  condition  of  slaves. 

The  greatest  part  of  the  succeeding  princes,  who  found  it  so  hard 
an  entprprize  to  defend  their  ow  n  territories,  had  little  leisure  or 
concern  to  guard  the  possessions  of  the  muses.  And  therefore  Clau- 
dian,  in  those  verses  of  his  Panegyric  un  Stiloco: 

Htnc  priscr  reduent  ortes^ftUcibus  inde 
Jngftiiis  aperitur  iter,  despectar/ue  Musx 
CoUa  levant ,-     ■■ 

is  guilty  of  a  great  piece  of  flattery,  in  making  that  minister  the 
restorer  of  polite  studies;  when  it  is  plain,  that  in  his  time  (under 
Honorius)  were  the  last  strugglings  of  the  Roman  state. 

The  Goths  and  Vandals,  who  soon  carried  all  before  them,  might 
easily  fright  learning  and  science  off  the  stage,  since  they  were  al- 
ready so  much  out  of  countenance;  and  thus  render  ti\e  conquerors 
of  the  universe  as  rough  and  illiterate  as  their  first  progenitors. 

In  this  manner,  the  inundations  of  the  barbarous  people  proved 
♦•qually  fatal  to  arts  and  empire ;  and  Rome  herself,  when  she  ceas- 
ed to  be  the  mistress  of  the  world,  in  a  little  time  quite  forgot  to 
«peak  Latin. 


4 


ESSAY  II. 


OF    THE    ROMAN    EDUCATION. 

IT  is  an  obvious  remark,  that  the  strongest  body  owes  its  vigour, 
in  a  great  measure,  to  the  very  milk  it  received  in  its  infancv,  and 
to  the  first  knitting  of  the  joints :  That  the  most  stately  tree's,  and 
the  fairest  herbs  and   flowers,  are   behol.lon  f<,r  their  shade  and 
beauty  to  the  hand  that  first  fixed  them  in  an  agreeable  soil:    An 
a.lvautage,  which,  if  they  happen  to  want,  they  seldom  fail  to  de- 
generate  into  wildness.  and  to  assume  a  nature  quite  different  from 
the.r  proper  species.     Kvery  one  knows  how  to  appl  v  the  same  «b- 
servatum  to  u.orals.  who  has  the  sense  to  discover  it  in  naturals. 
Hence    he  most  renowned  people,  in  storv,  are  those  whose  law- 
givers thought  it  their  noblest  and   most  important  work,  to  pre- 
scribe rules   or  the  early  institution  of  youth.     On  this  basis,  Ly- 
curgus   ounded  the  gh.rious  discipline  of  the  Spartans,  which  con- 

Thr'l  .   •"■    u     T        \  '''■'""'■  "'*'"'"'  '''y  considerable  violation. 

il.e  Indian  Brachmans  had  a  strain  beyond  all  the  wit  of  Greece 
beginning  their  care  of  mankind  even  before  their  birth,  and  em^ 
ploying  niuch  thought  and   diligence  about  the  diet  and  entertain- 
ment o     the.r  breeding  women;  so  far  as   to   furnish   them   with 

.leasant  imaginations,  to  compose  their  minds  and  their  sleep  wita 
the  best  temper,  during  the  time  that  they  carried  their  burthen.- 

settlemen  '  ""^'^^-P-'-'J^  »'-■  --l"ct  of  Numa.  that,  in  his 

sc  tiement  of  the  Roman  state,  he  did  not,  in  the  first  place,  pro- 

de  and  constitute  rules  for  the  education  of  children ;  Ind  mikes 

ou::r;iT*f/-^''->'''-'P''-t>>-l-f  cause  of  the  set 

i"  V     o  TT  °*"  ''"*  ^'"P'''  ''"•'  -'-'  contributed 

e  IS  t .  he       '"T       u^'  commonwealth...     Thus  much  in.leed 

in  s  If  t    "^  "".'^  *'"=  '"""  '"^^""''"«'  *'-t.  in  the  looser 

'trir    *''.'/"*P"'^''  '^"^  ^''•■""ctul  negligence  of  parents  and  in- 

'ictors,  with  Its  necessary  consequence,  the  corruption  and  decay 


'  Sir  Will.  Temple's  Miscell.  p.  2.  K,say  ]. 
f  lutarch.  Con.par.  of  Xtima  aiiU  Lycurg. 


XiV 


ESSAY    ir. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EDUCATION. 


XV 


of  morality  ami  good  letters,  struck  a  very  great  blow  towards  the 
dissolvirii;  of  that  glorious  fabric.  But  in  the  rising  ages  of  Rome, 
while  their  primitive  integrity  and  virtue  flourished  with  their 
arms  and  command,  the  training  up  of  youth  was  looke<l  on  as  a 
most  sacred  duty ;  and  they  ihougiit  themselves  in  the  highest 
manner  <»bliged  to  leave  fit  successors  to  the  empire  of  the  world. 
So  that,  upon  a  short  survey  of  the  whole  method  of  discipline, 
from  the  birtli  to  the  entrance  on  public  business,  they  will  appear 
so  far  to  have  exceeded  the  wisdom  and  care  of  other  nations,  as  to 
contend  for  this  glory,  even  with  the  ancient  Spartans,  whom  Plu- 
tarch has  inagnified  so  much  beyond  them;  especially  if  we  agree 
witU  i  groat  judge,  that  the  taking  no  care  about  the  learning,  but 
only  about  the  lives  and  manners  of  children,  may  be  justly  thought 
a  defect  in  Lvcur^jus's  institutions.'" 

Quintilian  (or  Tacitus)  in  the  dialogue  ilc  Omfnrihiis,  gives  an 
excellent  account  of  the  old  wav  of  breeding  children,  and  setts  it 
oft*  with  great  advantage,  by  comparing  it  with  the  modern  : 

"  As  soon  as  the  child  was  born,  he  was  not  given  in  charge  to  an 
hired  nurse,  to  live  with  her  in  some  pitiful  hole  that  served  for  her 
lodgings:  but  was  brought  up  in  the  lap  and  bosom  of  the  mother, 
who  reckoned  it  among  her  chief  commendations  to  keep  the  house, 
an. I  .  t  id  on  the  cliildren.  Some  ancient  matron  was  pitched 
on  out  of  the  neighbours,  wliose  life  and  manners  rendered  her 
worthv  of  that  oftice,  to  whose  care  the  children  of  every  family 
were  committed ;  before  whom  it  was  reckoned  the  most  heinous 
thing  in  the  world  to  speak  an  ill  word,  or  do  an  ill  action.  Nor 
liad  she  an  eve  only  on  their  instruction,  an<l  the  business  that  they 
were  to  follow,  but  with  an  equal  modesty  and  gravity,  she  regu- 
lated their  very  divertisements  and  recreations.  Thus  Corneli, 
Aurelia,  and  Attica,  mothers  to  the  Gracchi,  Julius  Caesar,  and 
Augustus,  are  reported  to  have  undertaken  the  office  of  governesses, 
and  to  have  employed  themselves  in  the  education  of  noblemen's 
children.  The  strictness  and  severity  of  such  an  institution  had 
this  very  good  design,  that  the  mind  being  tlius  preserved  in  its 
primitive  innocence  and  integrity,  and  not  debauched  by  ill  custom 
or  ill  example,  might  apply  itselt*  with  the  greatest  willingness  to 
lil)eral  arts,  and  embrace  them  with  all  its  powers  and  faculties. 
That,  whether  it  was  particularly  inclined  either  to  the  profesision 
of  arms,  or  to  the  understanding  of  the  law,  or  to  the  practi'/e  of 
eUKjuence,  it  might  make  that  its  only  business,  ;j^id  greedily  drink 
in  the  whole  knowledge  of  the  favourite  study. 

•3iut  now  the  young  infant  is  given  in  charge  to  some  poor  Ore 

'  Arcli!)isli«)p  Tillotson'ii  Sermon  on  ?:(lucation 


'■? 


} 


Lian  wench,  and  one  or  two  of  the  serving-men,  perhaps,  are  joined 
in  the  commission ;  generally  the  meanest  and  most  ill-bred  of  the 
vvhole  pack,  and  such  as  are  unfit  for  any  serious  business.  From 
the  stories  and  tattles  of  such  line  companions,  the  soft  and  flexible 
nature  must  take  its  first  impression  and  bent.  Over  the  whole  fa- 
mily there  is  not  the  least  care  taken  of  what  is  said  or  done  before 
the  child  ;  while  the  very  parents,  instead  of  inuring  their  dear  lit- 
tie  ones  to  virtue  and  modesty,  accustom  them,  on  the  quite  con- 
trary, to  licentiousness  and  wantonness  ;  the  natural  result  of  which 
is  a  settled  impudence,  and  a  contempt  of  those  very  parents,  and 
every  body  else." 

Thus,  although  the  care  and  instruction  of  youth,  among  the  old 
Romans,  had  been  provided  for  by  the  public  laws,  as  in  the  Spar- 
tan state,  yet  the  voluntary  diligence  of  parents  would  have  made 
all  such  regulations  superfluous. 

Among  the  domestic  cares,  it  will  not  be  from  the  purpose  to 
take  particular  notice  of  one,  which  required  little  trouble  or  diffi- 
culty, and  yet  proved,  as  beneficial  and  serviceable  as  any  other  in- 
stitution; I  mean  the  using  children  to  speak  the  language  purely 
at  first,  by  letting  them  hear  notliing  but  the  truest  and  most  pro- 
per phrase.  By  this  only  advantage  several  persons  arrived  at  the 
ordinary  repute  in  the  Forum,  who  were  so  unhappy  as  to  want 
many  other  qualifications. 

Tully  says  that  the  Gracchi  were  educated  9ion  torn  in  gremio 
qiiiim  ill  sermone  matris:  And  he  reports  of  C.  Curio,  who  was  reck- 
oned the  third  orator  of  his  time,  that  he  understood  no  poet,  had 
read  no  books  of  eloquence,  had  made  no  historical  collections ; 
and  had  no  knowledge  of  the  public  or  private  part  of  the  law! 
The  only  thing  which  gained  him  his  applause  was  a  clean,  shining 
phrase,  and  a  sudden  quickness  and  fluency  of  expression.  This  he 
got  purely  by  the  benefit  of  his  private  education ;  being  used  to 
such  a  correct  and  polished  way  of  speaking  in  the  house  where  he 
was  brought  up.*' 

For  masters,  in  the  first  place,  they  had  the  lAtcrcdorcs,  or  rp.r^. 
/x«Ti5r«i  who  taught  the  children  to  read  and  write:  To  these  they 
were  committed  about  the  age  of  six  or  seven  years.-  Being  come 
from  under  their  care,  they  were  sent  to  the  grammar  schools,  to 
learn  the  art  of  speaking  well,  and  the  understanding  of  authors: 
Or  more  frecjuently  in  the  houses  of  great  men,  some  eminent 
grammarian  was  entertained  for  that  employment. 

It  IS  pleasant  to  consider,  what  prudence  was  used  in  these  early 
years  to  instil  into  the  children's  minds  a  love  and  inclination  to  the 


**  Cic.  In  Unit. 


*  Dacier  in  llorat.  Sat.  1.  lib.  I. 


XVI 


ilSSAV    11. 


Foiuiii,  uhiMiee  tliev  were  to  expect  tlie  greatest  share  of  their  lion- 
ou;>  .itwl  |)ier«MiiUMits.  For  Cicero  tells  Atticus,  in  his  second  book 
de  LcLcihtts,  that  when  they  were  boys,  they  used  to  learn  the  fam- 
ous law.-,  of  the  'I'welve  Tables  by  heart,  in  the  same  manner  as 
they  did  an  excellent  poem.  And  Plutarch  relates  in  his  life  of  the 
youn;L;er  (>ato,  that  the  very  children  had  a  play,  in  which  thev  act- 
ed plead  inii^s  of  cause-,  before  the  judi^es;  accusing;  one  another, 
and  carryinjj:  the  condemned  party  to  prison. 

The  masters  ahoady  mentioned,  toii;ether  with  the  instructors  in 
the  several  sorts  of  manly  exercises,  for  the  improving  of  their  na 
tural  s(ren«rth  and  force,  do  not  projerly  deserve  that  name,  if  set. 
in  view  with  the  rhetoricians  and  philosophers ;  who,  after  that  rea- 
son had  displayed  her  faculties,  and  established  her  command,  were 
employed  to  cultivate  and  adorn  the  advantajjes  of  nalure,  and  to 
give  the  last  hand  toward  the  f(»rmin;r  of  a  Roman  citi/.en.  Few 
persons  made  any  jjreiit  fij^ure  on  the  scene  of  action  in  their  own 
time,  or  in  history  afterwards,  who,  besides  the  constant  frefpient- 
uv^r  of  public  lectures,  did  not  keep  with  them  in  the  house  some 
eminent  professor  of  oratory  or  wisdom. 

I  have  often  thought,  that  one  main  reason  of  the  prodijiious  pro- 
gress made  by  youny;  irentlemen  under  these  private  tutors,  was  the 
perfect  love  and  endearment  which  we  find  to  have  been  between 
master  and  scholar,  by  which  means  *:;overnment  and  instruction 
proceeded  in  the  sweetest  and  easiest  way.  All  persons  in  the  hap- 
py ages  of  Ron\e  had  the  same  honour  and  respect  for  their  teach- 
ers, as  Persius  had  for  his  master  Cornutus  the  Stoic,  to  whom,  ad- 
dressing; himself  in  his  first  Satire,  he  thus  admirably  describes  his 
own  h^ve  and  [)iety  to  his  governor,  and  the  strict  friendship  that 
was  between  them : 

Citvique  Iter  (imhiguum  est,  et  vitr  nescius  error 

JJiducit  trtpiilas  latnosn  in  attiijjita  vitntes. 

Me  tibi  aufyposui  .    tenet os  tu  suic pis  annus 

Sccrafico  Cornnte,  sinu  ;  tuucJullresoUrs 

^ippoiit    intort  sejttndit  regu/a  viures  ; 

111  prctnitur  t.itione  annnus   vincique  lahurat, 

J\rujicem({ue  tuoducit  suh  poUice  vultuni. 

Tec  m  I  tenim  /ongos  mnnitii  consnviere  ioles  ; 

Et  tet  um  p  i^niis  tpulis  decupert.  uoctcs. 

Jh  um    pus  e!  requiem  p  niter  disp-mimus  ambi>^ 

»^iti  ut  verecund  - 1  ixau  us  seria  itien.f.:. 

Nun    quidejti  hoc  dubites  ambomm  fudore  certo 

Co-  sentire  dies,  tt  ab  uno  sidere  duci 

No^tr a  vel    quali  suspendit  t'^tnpora  libra 

Pt  rca  tenax  veri  S'  u  nat    Jiilelibus  hora 

DtTJit  in  Geiiiivos  C .  .coruia  f  tn  dunrum; 

Siifu  numqut  gr..:veii  no  tro  lore  J,  t gimus  vna. 

Ntnto  quod  certt  est  qw^i  me  tibi  temperat  astruju 

Just  H\  the  agt>  wlun  luuimo.!  set  iii     lice, 

I  then  deposed  myself,  and  left  the  reins  to  thee  . 


.  J 


OF    THE    ROMAN    EDUCATION. 

Oil  iby  wise  bosom  I  reposed  my  head, 
And  by  m\  better  Socrates  was  bred. 
Tilt  i»  ;li^  straight  rule  set  virtue  in  my  sii'lit 
Tike  crookitl  liiie  letonning  b}  the  right. 
M\  leason  took  the  bent  otthy  comm  md  ; 
\V;i>  torincd  and  polished  b\  ihy  skdhd  liand. 
JVvr..g  Slimmer  dns  thy  j)re<-.epls  I  reh«  arse, 
An. I  winter  nighis  were  short  in  our  converse. 
Oiit^  was  O'lr  l.ibonr,  o;:e  was  our  r^J)(i^e  ; 
One  Irngul  supj)er  did  <Mjr  stiiches  close. 
vSure  on  our  birth  some  tricnuly  planet  shone, 
An. I,  us  our  souls,  our  horoscope  w.iS  one  : 
Wluther  the  inounting  Twins  did  heaven  adorn, 
Or  wi  h  the  rising  iJ  .l.«nc»'  wt?  were  bom. 
Both  have  tlie  s:.me  impression  from  above, 
And  Doth  have  Saturn's  r;ige,  repellc<I  b\  Jove. 
Wiiut  star  I  kni'vv  not,  but  some  slur,  1  liud, 
lias  given  tlie  .tn  ascenda-u  o'er  mv  miiul, 


%\n 


DRTIILX. 


Nor  was  the  reverence  paid  by  Wmi  public  to  tlic  informers  of 

youih  less  remarkable  than  the  esteem  and  duty  of  their  scholars. 

Which  makes  Juvenal  break  out  into  that  elegant  rapture; 

JJii  inajoruvi  umbria  teniiem.  et  sine  ponUere  terrain 

Spirantexqtfe  cr' cos   et  in  urn  t  perpctuuvi  %er 

Qui  praceptortm  scmcti  volucic  parentis 

Esse  loco  J 

In  peace,  ye  .shades  of  our  great  grapjclsires,  rest ; 

No  lu  avy  eurlh  your  sacred  bones  molest. 

Kt(  rnul  springs  and  rising  Howers  adoni 

The  reliqiies  of  each  venerable  urn  : 

Who  pious  reverence  to  their  tutors  paid. 

As  Parents  honoured,  and  as  Gods  obtyed.         charles  dutuks. 

At  the  age  of  seventeen  years  the  young  gentlemen,  when  they 
put  on  the  manly  gown,  were  brought  in  a  solemn  manner  to  the 
to.um,  and  entered  in  the  study  of  pleading;  not  only  if  they  de- 
signetl  to  make  this  their  chief  profession,  but  although  their  incli- 
nations lay  rather  to  the  camp.  For  we  scarce  meet  with  any 
lamous  captain  who  was  not  a  good  speaker,  or  any  eminent  orator 
who  had  not  served  some  time  in  the  army.  Thus  it  was  requisite 
for  all  persons,  who  had  any  thoughts  of  rising  in  the  world  to 
niake  a  good  appearance,  both  at  the  bar,  and  in  the  field  ;  because 
it  the  success  of  their  valour  and  conduct  should  advance  them  to 
any  considerable  post,  it  would  have  proved  almost  impossible 
mthout  the  advantage  of  eloquence,  to  maintain  their  authority  with 
the  senate  and  people;  or,  if  the  force  of  their  oratory  should  in 
time  procure  them  the  honourable  office  of  praetor  or  consul  they 
would  not  have  been  in  a  capacity  to  undertake  the  government  of 
the  provinces  (which  fell  to  their  share  at  the  expiration  of  those 
employments)  without  some  experience  in  military  command. 

Yet,  because  the  profession  of  arms  was  an  art  which  would  easily 
give  tlicm  an  opportunity  of  signalizing  themselves,  and  in  which 

»  Sat.  7. 


XVlll 


LSSAY    II. 


OF  THE  ROMAN    EDUCATION, 


XIX 


they  woiihi  almost  naturally  excel,  as  occasions  should  be  after- 
wards od'ered  for  their  service;  their  whole  application  and  endea- 
vours were  directed  at  present  to  the  study  of  law  and  rhetoric,  as 
the  foundations  of  their  future  grandeur.  Or,  perhaps,  they  now 
and  then  made  a  campaijijn,  as  well  for  a  diversion  from  several  la- 
bours, as  for  their  improvement  in  martial  discipline. 

In  the  dialogue  de  Oratoribus,  we  have  a  very  good  account  of 
this  admission  of  young  gentlemen  into  the  forum,  and  of  the  neces- 
sity of  such  a  course  in  the  commonwealth:  which  coming  from  so 
great  a  master,  cannot  fiiil  to  be  very  pertinent  and  instructive. 

"Among  our  ancestors,'*  says  the  author,  "the  youth  who  was 
designed  for  the  forum,  and  the  practice  of  eloquence,  being  now 
furnished  with  the  liberal  arts,  and  the  advantage  of  a  domestic  in- 
stitution, was  brought  by  his  father  or  near  relations,  to  the  most 
celebrated  orator  in  the  city.  Him  he  use<l  constantlv  to  attend 
and  to  be  always  present  at  his  performance  of  any  kind,  either  in 
judicial  matters,  or  in  the  ordinary  assemblies  of  the  people;  so 
that  by  this  means  he  learned  to  engage  in  the  laurels  and  conten- 
tions of  the  bar,  and  to  approve  himself  a  man  at  arms  in  the  wars 
of  the  pleaders. 

"  For  in  that  ancient  constitution  of  a  mixed  state,  when  the  dif- 
ferences were  never  referred  to  one  supreme  person,  the  orators  de- 
termined matters  as  they  pleased,  by  prevailing  on  the  minds  of  the 
ignorant  multitude:  hence  came  the  ambition  of  popular  applause  ; 
hence  the  great  variety  of  laws  and   decrees  ;  hence  the   tedious 
speeches  and  harangues  of  the  magistrates,  sometimes  carried  on 
whole  nights  in  the  rostra:  hence  the  frequent  indictment  and  im- 
pleading of  the  powerful  criminals,  and  the  exposing  of  houses  to 
the  violence  and  fury  of  the  rabble  ;  hence  the  factions  of  the  nobili- 
ty, and  the  constant  heats  and  bickerings  between  the  senate  and  peo- 
ple: All  which,  though  in  a  great  measure  they  distracted  the  com- 
monwealth, yet  had  this  good  eftect,  that  they  exercised  and  improv- 
ed the  elo(|uence  of  those  times,  by  j)roposing  the  highest  rewards 
of  that  study ;  because  the  more  excellent  any  person  appeared  in  the 
art  of  speaking,  the  more  easily  he  arrived  at  honours  and  employ- 
ments; the  more  he  surpassed  his  colleague  in  the  same  office,  the 
greater  was  his  favour  with  the  leading  men  of  the  city,  his  authority 
with  the  senate,  and  his  renown  and  esteem  among  the  commons. 
These  men  were  courted  and  waited  on  by  clients  even  of  foreio-n  na- 
tions:  These,  when  they  undertook  the  command  of  provinces,  the 
very  magistrates  reverenced  at  their  departure,  and  adored  at  their 
return :  These  the  highest  offices  of  prxtor  or  consul  seemed  to 
Fcquire  and  call  for,  and  court  their  acceptance:  These,  when  in 


s 


I 


^ 
^ 


r 


J 


a  private  station,  abated  very  little  of  their  authority,  wliile  thev 
guided  both  the  senate  and  the  people  by  their  counsel.  For  they 
took  this  for  an  infallible  maxim,  that  without  eloquence  it  was 
impossible  eitlier  to  attain  or  defend  a  considerable  trust  in  the 
commonwealth  :  and  no  wonder,  when  they  were  drawn  to  business, 
even  against  their  will,  and  compelled  to  shew  their  parts  in  public  ; 
when  it  was  reckoned  but  an  ordinary  matter  to  deliver  one's  opin- 
ion in  short  before  the  senate,  unless  a  man  could  maintain  and  im- 
prove it  with  the  engaging  ornaments  of  wit  and  elegance;  when,  if 
they  had  contracted  any  envy  or  suspicion,  they  were  to  a^^swer  the 
accuser's  charge  in  person ;  when  they  could  not  so  much  as  give 
their  evidence,  as  to  public  matters,  in  writing,  but  were  obliged  to 
appear  in  court,  and  deliver  it  with  their  own  mouth.  So  that  there 
was  not  oidy  a  vast  encouragement,  but  even  a  necessity  of  eloquence: 
To  be  a  fine  speaker  was  counted  brave  and  glorious;  on  the  other 
hand,  to  act  only  a  mute  person,  on  the  public  stage,  was  scandalous 
and  reproachful.  And  thus  a  sense  of  honour,  and  desire  of  avoiding 
infamy,  was  a  main  incitement  to  their  endeavours  in  these  studies  ; 
lest  they  should  be  reckoned  among  the  clients,  rather  than  amono- 
the  patrons  ;  lest  the  numerous  dependencies  transmitted  to  them 
from  their  ancesters  should  now  at  last  pass  into  other  families,  for 
want  of  an  able  supporter  ;  lest  like  a  sort  of  useless  and  unprotituble 
creaturs,  they  should  either  be  frustrated  in  their  pretensions  to  hon- 
our and  preferments,  or  else  disgrace  themselves  and  their  office,  by 
the  miscarriages  of  their  administration." 

Crassus  and  Antonius,  the  two  chief  managers  of  the  discourse  in 
Tully's  first  book  dc  Orator e,  are  represented  as  very  opposite  in 
their  judgments  concerning  the  necessary  improvements  of  an  ac- 
complished orator.  The  former  denies  any  person  the  honour  of  his 
name,  who  does  not  possess,  in  some  degree,  all  the  qualities,  both 
native  and  acquired,  that  enter  into  the  composition  of  a  general 
scholar.  The  force  of  his  argument  lies  in  this,  that  an  orator  ouo-ht 
to  be  able  to  deliver  himself  copiously  on  all  manner  of  subjects : 
und  he  does  not  see  how  any  one  can  answer  this  character,  without 
some  excellency  in  all  the  mysteries  of  arts  and  learning,  as  well  as 
in  the  happy  endowments  of  nature.  Yet  he  would  not  have  these 
acquisitions  sit  so  loose  about  him,  as  to  be  laid  open  to  the  bottom 
on  every  occasion;  but  that  (as  a  great  man  expresseth  it)  they 
-hould  rather  be  "enameled  in  his  mind  than  embossed  upon  it." 
That,  as  the  critics  in  gaits  and  gestures  will  easily  discover,  by  the 
con\portment  of  a  man's  body,  whether  he  has  learned  to  dance, 
though  he  does  not  practice  his  art  in  his  ordinary  motion :  so  an 
ontor  when  he  delivers  himself  on  any  subject,  will  easily  make  it 


XX 


ESSAY    II. 


ON    THE    ROMAN    EDUCATION. 


XXI 


appear,  whether  he  has  a  full  understandin}:^  of  the  particular  art  or 
faculty  on  which  the  cause  depends,  thoun;h  he  does  not  discouiso  of 
it  in  the  manner  of  a  philosopher  or  a  mechanic.     Antonius,  on  the 
othei"  hand,  rejecting  on  the  shortness  of  human  life,  und  how  great 
a  pint  of  it  is  c<mnnonl v  taken  up  in  the  attainment  of  but  a  few- 
parts  of  knowledge,  is  inclined  to  believe  that  oratory  does  not  re- 
ijuire  the  necessary  attendance  of  its  sister  arts  ;  but  that  a  man  may 
be  able  to  prosecute  a  theme  of  any  kind,  without  a  train  of  scieiices. 
and  the  advantages  of  a  learned  institution.     That  as  few  persons 
are  to  seek  in  the  cultivating  of  their  land,  or  the  contrivance  and 
elegance  of  their  gardens,  though  they  never  read  Cato  de  Re  Jh(s- 
iica,  or  Mago  the  Carthaginian  ;  so  an  orator  may  harangue,  w  ith  a 
great  deal  of  reason  and  truth,  on  a  subject  taken   from  any  pa:t  of 
knowledge,  without  any  farther  acipiaintance  with  the  nicer  specu- 
lations, than  his  common  sense  and  understanding,  in^proved  bv  ex- 
perience and  conversation,  shall  lead  him  :   "  For  whosoever,  (says 
he)  when  he  comes  to  move  the  affections  of  the  judges  or  people, 
stops  at  this,  that  he  hath  not  philosophy  enough  to  dive  into  the 
first  springs  of  the  passions,  and  to  discover  their  various  natures 
and  operatitms  ?  Besides,  at  this  rate  we  must  (|uite  lay  aside  the 
way  of  raising  pity  in  the  audience,  by  representing  the  misery 
of  a  distressed  party,  or  describing  (perhaps)  the  slavery  which  he 
endures:   when  philosophy  tells  us,  that  a  good  man  can  never  be 
miserable,  and  that  virtue  is  always  absolutely  free.'* 

Now  as  Cicero,  without  <loubt,  sat  himself  for  the  picture,  w  hich, 
in  Crassus's  name,  he  there  draws  of  an  orator,  and  therefore 
strengthens  his  argument^  by  his  ow  n  example  as  well  as  his  jud"-- 
ment;  so  Antonius,  in  the  next  dialogue,  does  not  stick  to  own, 
that  his  former  assertion  was  rather  taken  up  for  the  sake  of  disput- 
ing and  encountering  his  rival,  than  to  deliver  the  just  sentiments 
of  his  mind.  And  therefore,  the  genteel  education,  in  the  politer 
ages  of  Uome,  being  wholly  directed  to  the  bar,  it  seems  probable, 
that  no  part  of  useful  know  ledge  w^as  omitted,  for  the  improving  and 
adorning  of  the  main  study  ;  and  that  all  the  other  arts  w  ere  court- 
ed, though  not  w  ith  an  ecjual  passion.  And  upon  the  w  hole,  it  ap- 
pears, that  a  strange  assiduity,  and  unw  earied  application,  w  ere  the 
very  life  and  soul  of  their  designs.  When  their  historians  describe 
an  extraordinary  man,  this  always  enters  into  his  character,  as  an 
essential  part  of  it,  that  he  was  incredihili  indu.itria,  diltgenlin  sin- 
gii/ari:;  "of  incredible  industry,  of  singular  diligence.*'-  And 
Cato,  in  Sallust,  tells  the  senate,  that  it  w^as  not  the  arms,  so  much 

K  Archbishop  Tillotson's  Sermon  on  Education. 


I  • 


as  the  industry  of  their  ancestors,  which  advanced  the  grandeur  of 
Rome  ;  so  that  the  founders  and  regulators  of  this  state,  in  making 
diligence  and  labour  necessary  qualifications  of  a  citizen,  took  the 
same  course  as  the  poets  will  have  Jupiter  to  have  thought  on,  when 
he  succeeded  to  the  government  over  the  primitive  mortals : 


Hand  Jucilnn  tsae  %iain  'voluit ;  prhiiusque  per  artcm 
^Mtivi       grus.  cutis  ncuens  nu^rtalia  corda, 
Ntc  torptrt  graxi  pasaui  sua  rtgnu  leterno)^ 

To  confirm  the  opinion  of  their  extreme  industry  and  perpetual 
>tudy  and  labour,  it  may  not  seem  impertinent  to  instance  in  the 
three  common  exercises  of  translating,  declaiming,  and  reciting. 

Translation,  the  ancient  orators  of  Rome  looked  on  as  a  most  use- 
ful, thoui::h  a  most  laborious  employment.     All  persons  that  applied 
themselves  to  the  bar,  proposed  commonly  some  one  orator  of  Greece 
lor  their  constant  pattern;  either  Lysias,  Hyperides,  Demosthenes, 
or  .^schines,  as  their  genius  was  inclined.     Him  they  continually 
st  udied,  and,  to  render  themselves  absolutely  masters  of  his  excellen- 
cies, were  alw  ays  making  him  speak  their  own  tongue.   This  Cicero, 
Quintilian,and  Pliny  Junior,  enjoin  as  an  indispensable  duty,  in  or- 
der to  the  accjuiring  any  talent  in  eloquence.     And  the  first  of  these 
sreat  men,  besides  his  many  versions  of  the  orators  for  his  private 
use,  obliged  the  public  w  ith  the  translation  of  several  parts  of  Plato 
and  Xenophon  in  prose,  and  of  Homer  and  Aratus  in  verse. 

As  to  declaiming,  this  was  not  only  the  main  thing,  at  which  they 
laboured  under  the  masters  of  rhetoric,  but  what  they  practised  long 
alter  they  undertook  real  causes,  and  had  gained  a  considerable  name 
ill  the  forum.     Suetonius,  in  his  book  of  famous  rhetoricians,  tells 
lis  that  Cicero  declaimed  in  Greek  till  he  was  elected  Praetor,  and  in 
Latin  till  near  his  death  ;  that  Pompey  the  Great,  just  at  the  break- 
ing out  of  the  civil  war,  resumed  his  old  exercise  of  declaiming,  that 
he  might  the  more  easily  be  able  to  deal  with  Curio,  who  undertook 
the  defence  of  Caesar's  cause,  in  his  public   harangues;  that  Mark 
Vntony  and  Augustus  did  not  lay  aside  this  custom,  even  when 
They  were  engaged  in  the  siege  of  Mutina  ;  and  that  Nero  was  not 
•mly  constant  at  his  declamations,  while  in  a  private  station,  but 
lor  the  first  year  after  his  advancement  to  the  empire. 

It  is  worth  remarking,  that  the  subject  of  these  old  declamations 
was  not  a  mere  fanciful  thesis,  but  a  case  which  might  probably  be 
brought  into  the  courts  of  judicature.  The  contrary  practice,  which 
crej)t  into  some  schools  after  the  Augustan  age,  to  the  great  debas- 
ing of  eloquence,  is  what  Petronius  inveighs  so  severely  against,  in 

-=  Virg-.  Georg-.  1. 
5 


•^ 


xxu 


ESSAY    II. 


OF    THE    ROMAN    EDUCATION. 


XXUi 


the  beginning  of  his  Salyricon,  in  a  strain  so  elegant,  that  it  would 
lose  a  great  pait  of  the  giace  and  spirit  in  any  transhition. 

\V  hen  I  speak  of  recitation,  I  intend  not  to  insist  on  the  public 
performances  of  the  poets  in  that  kind,  for  v  hicli  purpose  they  com- 
monly b(»rro\ved  the  bouse  of  some  of  their  noblest  ])atrons,  and  car- 
ried on  tbe  whole  matter  before  a  vast  concourse  of  people,  and  with 
abundance  of  ceremony.  For,  considering  the  ordinary  circum- 
stances of  men  of  that  ])rofession,  tbis  may  be  thought  not  so  much 
tbe  elVect  (d' an  in«lustiious  temjier,  as  the  necessary  wav of  raising 
a  name  among  the  wits,  and  getting  a  tolerable  livelihood.  And  it 
is  evident,  tbat  under  some  princes,  tbe  most  celebrated  of  this 
tribe,  for  all  tbeir  trouble  and  pains  in  proclaindng  their  parts  to 
the  multitude,  could  liardly  keep  themselves  from  starving,  as  Ju- 
venal observes  of  Statius  : 

.SV(/  ctnn  yii^fit  subselUii  lersu 


Ksunt,  intac!  iin  J'liriUi  }2isi  vndit  ,lga<ven. 


T  would  mean,  therefore,  the  rehearsal  of  all  manner  of  composi- 
tions in  prose  or  verse,  performed  by  men  of  some  rank  and  (piality, 
belore  they  obliged  the  world  w  ith  theii-  publication.  This  was  ordi- 
narily done  in  a  meeting  of  friends  and  acquaintances,  and  now  and 
then  with  the  admissinn  of  a  more  numerous  audience.  The  design 
they  chiefly  aimed  at  was  the  correction  and  improvement  of  the 
piece  ;  for  the  author,  having  a  greater  awe  and  concern  uj)on  him 
on  these  occasions  than  at  other  times,  must  needs  take  more  notice 
of  every  word  and  sentence,  wh'de  he  spoke  them  before  the  com- 
pany, than  be  did  in  the  composure,  or  in  the  common  supervisal. 
Besides,  he  had  the  advantage  of  all  his  friends' judgments,  whether 
intimated  to  him  afterwards  in  private  conference,  or  tacitlv  declared 
at  the  recital  by  their  looks  and  nods,  with  many  other  tokens  of 
dislike  and  appiobation.  In  the  fulh'r  auditories,  he  had  the  benefit 
of  seeing  what  took  or  what  did  not  take  with  the  people;  whose 
common  suffrage  was  of  so  great  authority  in  this  case,  that  Poni- 
ponius  Secundus,  a  celebrated  author  of  tragedies,  when  he  con- 
sulted with  his  friends  about  the  polishinu:  anv  of  his  writinns  if 
they  happened  to  ditler  in  their  opinion  about  the  elegance,  just 
ness,  and  propriety  of  any  thought  or  exjjression,  used  always  to 
say,  •'  ad  populum  provoco/' — •*  1  appeal  to  the  people,"  as  the  bc^t 
deciders  of  the  controversy.' 

The  example  of  the  younger  Pliny,  in  this  practice,  is  very  observ- 
able, and  the  account  which  we  have  of  it  is  given  us  by  himself. 
*•  I  omit  (says  he)  no  way  or  method  that  may  seem  proper  for  coi  - 


1 


I  ection.  And  first  I  take  a  strict  view  of  what  I  have  written,  and 
consider  thoroughly  of  the  whole  piece ;  in  the  next  place,  I  reld  it 
over  to  two  or  three  friends,  and  soon  after  send  it  to  others  for  the 
benefit  of  their  observation.  If  I  am  in  any  doubt  concerning  their 
criticisms,  I  take  in  the  assistance  of  one  or  two  besides  myself,  to 
judge  and  debate  the  matter.  Last  of  all,  I  recite  before  a  greater 
number;  and  this  is  the  time  that  1  furnish  myself  with  the  severest 
emendations. "J 

It  might  be  a  farther  pleasure  on  this  subject,  to  describe  the 
wimie  institution  and  course  of  study  of  the  most  famous  Romans, 
with  their  gradual  advances  to  those  virtues  and  attainments,  which 
we  still  admire  in  their  story.  But  the  account  which  Cicero  -ives 
ol  lumselt  in  his  Brutus,  and  some  hints  from  other  parts  of  his 
works,  will  excuse,  if  not  command,  the  omission  of  all  the  rest. 
And  It  is  no  ordinary  happiness,  that  we  are  obliged  with  the  history 
of  that  excellent  person  from  his  own  hand,  wiiom  we  must  certainly 
pitch  upon  for  the  first  and  greatest  example,  if  we  were  beholden 
only  to  the  relations  of  other  men. 

For  some  time  after  his  admission  to  the  forum,  he  was  a  constant 
auditor  ol  the  best  pleaders,  whenever  they  spoke  in  public.  Every 
day  he  spent  several  hours  in  writing,  reading,  and  improving  his 
nnention  ;  besides  the  exercises  he  performed  in  the  art  of  oratory. 
For  the  knowledge  of  the  civil  law,  he  applied  himself  with  all  ima- 
ginable  diligence  to  Q.  Scacvola,  the  most  celebrated  professor  of 
that  science,  who,  though  he  did  not  make  it  his  business  to  procure 
scholars  yet  was  very  ready  an.l  willing  to  assist  such  persons  in 
this  study,  as  desired  his  advice  and  directions.  It  was  to  this 
Scxvola,  that  Cicero's  father,  when  he  put  on  him  his  manlv  -own 
committed  his  son,  with  a  strict  charge  never  to  stir  from  him  but 
on  extraordinary  accounts. 

About  the  nineteenth  year  of  his  age,  in  the  heat  of  the  contention 
between  Marius  and  Sylla,  when  the  courts  of  judicature  were  shut 
up.  and  all  things  in  confusion  ;  Phiio,  the  prince  of  the  academy 
leaving  Athens,  on  occasion  of  the  Mithridatic  war,  took  up  his  resi- 
dence .11  Rome,  Cicero  wholly  resigned  himself  to  his  institution, 
having  now  fixed  the  bent  of  his  thoughts  and  inclinations  to  philoso- 
phy to  which  he  gave  the  more  diligent  attendance,  because  the 
dis  ractions  of  the  time  gave  him  little  reason  to  hope,  that  the  judi- 
cial  process,  and  the  regular  course  of  the  laws,  would  ever  be  re- 
stored to  their  forme,  vigour.  Yet,  not  entirely  to  forsake  his  ora- 
tory, at  the  same  time  he  made  his  application  to  Molo  the  Rhodi- 
^n,  a  famous  pleader  and  waster  of  rhetoric. 


'  IMin.  lib.  7.  epist.  17. 


'  Plin.  lib.  7.  epist.  17. 


XXIV 


ilSSAV    11 


Svlla  bci!i<'-  now  the  spcond  time  advanced  against  Mithridates. 
the  Vity  was  not  much  disturbed  with  arms  tor  three  years  ti.-ether. 
Duriui;  this  interval  Cicero,  with  unwearied  diligence,  made  his  ad- 
vances day  and  night  in  all  manner  of  learning,  havin-  now  the  be- 
nefit of  a  new  instructor,  Diodotus  the  Stoic,  who  lived  and  died  in 
his  house.  To  this  master,  besides  his  improvement  in  other  useful 
parts  of  knowled-e,  he  was  ])articularly  obliged  for  keeping  him 
continually  exercised  in  logic,  which  he  calls  a  concise  and  com- 
pact kind  of  elocjuence. 

But.  though  engaged  at  the  same  lime  in  so  many  and  such  (lifer- 
ent taculties"!  he  let  no  day  slip  without  some  performance  in  orato- 
ry; declaimini!;  constantly  with  the  best  antagonists  he  could  light 
on  among  the  students.  In  this  exercise  he  .lid  not  stick  to  any  one 
ian<'-uagt%  but  sometimes  made  use  of  Latin,  sometimes  of  Greek; 
amrim?eed  more  fre.iue.itly  of  tlie  latter;  either  because  the  beauties 
and  ornaments  of  the  Greek  style  would  by  this  means  grow  so  na- 
tural,'as  easily  to  be  imitated  in  his  own  tougue ;  or  because  his 
Grecian  masters  would  not  be  such  proper  judges  of  his  style  and 
method,  nor  so  well  able  to  correct  his  failures,  if  he  delivered 
himself  in  any  other  than  their  native  language. 

Tpon  Sylla's  victorious  return,  and  his  settlement  of  the  common- 
wealth,  the  lawyers  recovered  their  practice,  and  tlie  ordinary  course 
of  judicial  matters  was  revive<l ;  and  then  it  was  that  Cicero  came  to 
the  bar,  and  undertook  the  patronage  of  public  and  private  causes. 
His  first  oration,  in  a  public  jud-ment,  was  the  defence  of  Sextus 
Uoscius,  prosecuted  by  no  less  a  man  than  the  Dictator  himself; 
which  was  the  reason  that  none  of  the  old  staunch  advocates  dared 
appear  in  his  behalf.  Cicero  carried  the  cause,  to  his  great  honour, 
being  now  about  six  or  seven  and  twenty  ;  and  having  beiiaved  him- 
self so  remarkably  well  in  his  first  enterprize,  there  was  no  business 
thoui^ht  too  weighty  or  difficult  for  h's  management. 

He  found  himself  at  this  time  to  labour  under  a  very  weak  consti- 
tution, to  which  was  added  the  natural  default  in  his  make,  of  a  long 
and^thin  neck;  so  that,  in  probability,  the  labour  and  straining  of  the 
body  required  in  an  orator  could  not  consist  but  with  manifestdangcr 
of  his  life.  This  was  especially  to  be  feared  in  him,  because  he  was 
observed  in  his  ]»leadings  to  keep  his  voice  always  at  the  highest 
pitcii,  in  a  most  vehement  and  impetuous  tone,  and  at  the  same  time 
to  use  a  proportionuble  violence  in  his  gestures  and  action.  Ljxm  this 
consideration  the  physicians,  and  his  nearest  friends,  were  continual 
ly  urging  him  to  lay  aside  all  thoughts  of  a  profession  which  apjjrared 
se  evtremelv  prejudicial  to  his  health.  But  Cicero  shewed  himsell 
equally  inflexible  to  the  advice  of  the  one,  and  to  the  entreaties  of 


OF    THE    ROMAN    EDUCATION. 


XXV 


rv 


the  other;  and  declared  his  resolution  rather  to  run  the  risk  of  any 
danger  that  might  happen,  than  deprive  hiuiself  of  the  glory  which 
he  mitrht  justly  challenge  from  the  bar. 

Confirunnt;  himself  in  this  determination,  he  began  to  think,  that 
upon  altering  his  mode  of  speaking,  and  bringing  his  voice  down  to 
a  lower  and  more  moderate  key,  he  might  abate  considerably  of  the 
heat  and  fury  which  now  transported  him,  and  by  that  means  avoid 
the  damage  which  seemed  now  to  threaten  his  design. 

For  the  effecting  of  the  cure,  he  concluded  on  a  journey  into 
Greece  ;  and  so,  after  he  had  made  his  name  very  considerable  in 
the  forum,  by  two  years  pleading,  he  left  the  city.  Being  arrived 
at  Athens,  he  took  up  his  residence  for  six  months  with  the  philo- 
sopher Atticus,  the  wisest  and  most  noble  assertor  of  the  old  acade- 
mv  :  and  here,  under  the  direction  of  the  greatest  master,  he  re- 
newed his  acquaintance  with  that  part  of  learning  which  had  been 
the  constant  entertainment  of  his  youth,  at  the  same  time  perform- 
in^r  his  exercises  in  oratory  under  the  care  of  Demetrius  the  Syrian, 
aireminent  professor  of  the  art  of  speaking.  After  this  he  made  a 
circuit  round  all  Asia,  with  several  of  the  most  celebrated  orators 
and  rhetoricians,  who  voluntarily  offered  him  their  company. 

But  not  satisfied  with  all  these  advantages,  he  sailed  to  Rhodes, 
and  there  entered  himself  once  more  among  the  scholars  of  the  fa- 
mous Molo,  whom  he  had  formerly  heard  at  Rome;  one  that,  be- 
sides his  admirable  talent  at  pleading  and  penning,  had  a  peculiar 
happiness  in  marking  and  ccnrecting  the  detaults  in  any  perform- 
ance. It  was  to  his  institution  that  Cicero  gratefully  acknowledges 
he  owed  the  retrenching  of  his  juvenile  heat  and  unbounded  free- 
dom of  thought,  which  did  not  consist  with  the  just  rules  of  an 
exact  and  severe  method. 

Returning  to  Rome,  after  two  years  absence,  he  appeared  quite 
another  man  ;  for  his  body,  strengthened  by  exercise,  was  come  to  a 
tolerable  habit.  His  way  of  speaking  seemed  to  have  grown  cool, 
and  his  voice  was  rendered  much  easier  to  himself,  and  much  sweeter 
to  the  audience.  Thus,  about  the  one  and  thirtieth  year  of  his  age, 
he  arrived  at  that  full  perfection,  which  had  so  long  taken  up  his 
whole  wishes  and  endeavours,  and  which  hath  been,  ever  since,  the 
admiration  or  envv  of  the  world. 


THE 


ANTIQUITIES 


•  •  •   •  • 
.  t  •  •  •   • 


••   •  • 


OF 


ROME. 


PART  I.— BOOK  I. 


THE  ORIGIXAI,,  GROWTH  AND  DECAY  OF  THE  ROMAN  TOMMONWEALTII. 


CHAPTER  I 


■ 


OF  THE  BUILDING  OF  THE  CITY. 

AVHIT.E  we  view  the  original  of  states  and  kingdoms  (the  most 
iielightful  and  surprising  part  of  history,)  we  easily  discern,  as  the 
first  and  fairest  prospect,  the  rise  of  the  Jewish  and  Roman  common- 
wealths; of  which,  as  the  former  had  the  honour  always  to  be  es- 
teemed the  favourite  of  heaven,  and  the  peculiar  care  of  divine  pro- 
vidence; so  the  other  had  very  good  pretentions  to  style  herself 
the  darling  of  fortune,  who  seemed  to  express  a  more  tlian  ordinary 
fondness  for  this  her  youngest  daughter,  as  if  she  had  designed  the 
three  former  monarchies  purely  for  a  foil  to  set  oft^  this  latter.  Their 
own  historians  rarely  begin  without  a  fit  of  wonder;  and,  before 
tliey  proceed  to  delineate  the  glorious  scene,  give  themselves  the 
liberty  of  standing  still  some  time,  to  admire  at  a  distance. 

For  the  founder  of  the  city  and  republic,  authors  have  long  since 
agreed  on  Romulus,  son  of  Rhea  Sylvia,  and  descendant  of  ^Eneas, 
from  whom  his  pedigree  may  be  thus  in  short  derived  :  Upon  the 
final  ruin  and  destruction  of  Troy  by  the  Grecians,  ^neas,  with  a 
small  number  of  followers,  had  the  good  fortune  to  secure  himself 
by  flight.  His  escape  was  very  much  countenanced  by  the  enemy, 
inasmuch  as  upon  all  occasions  he  had  expressed  his  inclinations  to 
a  peace,  and  to  the  restoring  of  Helen,  the  unhappy  cause  of  the 
mischief.  Sailing  thus  from  Troy,  after  a  tedious  voyage,  and 
great  variety  of  adventures,  he  arrived  at  last  at  Latium,  a  part  of 
Italy  so  called,  a  latendo,  from  lying  hid:  being  the  place  that  Sa- 


'JH 


HIE  RISE  AND  PROGRESS. 


OF    THE    ROMAN    EMPIRE. 


29 


tii 


t^rn  Ikim  ili'»sea  for  his  ri'tirement,  ulieii  expelled  tlie  kingdom  of 
Cre'te  by  Ins  lebellious  son  Jupiter.  Here,  jippiyini;  himself  to  the 
king  ef  trie  country,  at  that  time  Latinus,  he  obtained  his  only 
daughter,  Lavinia,  in  marriage;  and,  upon  the  death  of  his  father- 
in-law,  was  left  in  possession  of  the  crown.  He  removed  the  im- 
perial seat  from  Laurentum  to  Lavinium,  a  city  which  he  had  built 
himself  in  honour  of  his  wife;  an<i  upon  his  decease  soon  after,  the 
right  of  succession  rested  in  Ascanius,  w  hether  his  son  by  a  iormer 
M  ife,  and  the  same  he  brought  with  him  from  Troy,  or  another  of 
that  name  which  he  had  by  Lavinia,  Livy  leaves  undetermined. 
Ascanius  being  under  age,  the  government  was  instructed  in  the 
hands  of  Lavinia;  but,  as  soon  as  he  was  grown  up,  he  left  his  mo- 
ther in  possession  of  Lavinium  ;  and  removing  w  ith  part  of  the 
men,  laid  the  foundation  of  a  new  city,  along  the  side  of  the  n»oun- 
lain  Albanus,  called  from  thence  Longa  .^Iba.  After  him,  by  a 
succession  of  eleven  princes,  the  kingdom  devolved  at  last  to  Pro- 
cas.  Procas  at  his  death  left  two  sons,  Numitor  and  Amulius; 
of  whom  Amulius,  over-reaching  his  elder  brother,  obliged  him  to 
quit  claiui  to  the  crown,  which  he  thereupon  secured  to  himself; 
and  to  prevent  all  disturbance  that  might  probably  arise  to  him  or 
his  posterity  from  the  elder  family,  making  away  with  all  the  males, 
he  constrained  Numitor's  only  daughter,  Rhea  Sij/via,  to  take  on 
her  the  habit  of  a  vestal,  and  consei^uently  a  vow  of  perpetual  vir- 
ginity. However,  the  princess  was  soon  after  found  with  eluld, 
and  delivered  of  two  boys,  Ronudus  and  Remu>.  The  tyrant,  being 
acquainted  with'  the  truth,  immediately  condemned  his  niece  to 
strait  impiisonment,  and  the  infants  to  be  exposed,  or  carried  and 
left  in  a  strange  ])lace,  where  it  was  very  improbable  that  they 
hhould  meet  with  any  relief.  The  servant  who  had  the  care  of  this 
inhuman  ollice  left  the  children  at  the  bottom  of  a  tree,  by  the 
bank  of  the  river  Tiber.  Li  this  sad  condition,  they  were  casually 
discovered  bv  Faustulus,  the  king's  shepherd;  who  being  wholly 
ignorant  of  the  plot,  took  the  infants  up,  and  carried  them  home 
to  his  wife  Laurentiu,  to  be  nursed  with  his  own  children.'  This 
^vife  of  his  had  formerly  been  a  common  prostitute,  called  in  Latin 
Lupa;  which  word  signifying  likewise  a  she-wolf,  gave  occasion 
to  the  story  of  their  being  nursed  by  such  a  beast;  though  some  take 
the  word  always  in  a  literal  sense,  and  maintain  that  they  leally 
subsisted  some  time  by  sucking  this  creature,  before  they  had  the 
good  fortune  to  be  relieved  by  Faustulus.'^  The  boys,  as  they  grew 
up,  discovering  the  natural  greatness  of  their  minds  and  thoughts, 
addicted  themselves  to  the  generous  exercises  of  hunting,  racing, 

'  Livy,  lib.  1.        ''  Dempster's  Notes  to  Kosinus's  Antiquities,  lib.  L  cap    1 


taking  of  robbers,  and  such  like;  and  always  expressed  a  great  de- 
sire of  engaging  in  any  enterprize  that  appeared  hazardous  and 
noble.       Now  there  happening  a  quarrel  betwixt  the  herdsmen  of 
Numitor  and   Anmlius,  the  former  lighting  casually  on   Remus, 
brought  him  before  their  master  to  be  examined.     Numitor,  learn- 
in;:;  fiom  his  own  mouth  the  strange  circumstance  of  his  education 
and  fortune,  easily  guessed  him  to  be  one  of  his  grandsons  who  had 
been  exposed.     He  was  soon  confirmed  in  this  conjecture,  upon  the 
arrival  of  Faustulus  and  Romulus;  when  the  whole  business  being 
laid  open,  upon  consultation  had,  gaining  over  to  their  party  a  suf- 
ficient number  of  the  disaffected  citizens,  they  contrived  to  surprize 
Amulius,  and  re-establish  Numitor.     This  design  was  soon  after 
very  liappily  put  in  execution,  the  tyrant  slain,  and  the  old  king  re- 
stored to  a  full  enjoyment  of  the  crown."     The  young  princes  had 
no  sooner  reseated  their  grand-father  in  his  throne,  but  they  began 
to  think  of  procuring  one  for  themselves.     They  had  higher  thoughts 
than  to  take  up  with  the  reversion  of  a  kingdom;  and  were  unwil- 
ling to  live  in  Alba,  because  they  could  not  govern  there:  So  takin«- 
with  them  their  foster-fatlier,  and  what  others  they  could  get  together, 
they  began  the  f(mndation  of  a  new  city,  in  the  same  place  where 
in  their  infancy  they  had  been  brought  up.'      The  first  walls  were 
scarce  finished,  when,  upon  a  slight  quarrel,  the  occasion  of  which 
is  variously  reported  by  historians,  the  younger  brother  had  the 
misfortune  to  be  slain.     Thus  the  whole  pc^wer  came  into  Romulus's 
hands;  who  carrying  on  the  remainder  of  the  work,  gave  the  city 
a  name  in  allusion  to  his  own,  and  hath  ever  been  accounted  the 
founder  and  patron  of  the  Roman  commonwealth. 


CHAPTER  IL 

OF    THE    ROMAN    AFFAIRS    UNDER    THE    KINGS. 

THE  witty  historian^  had  very  good  reason  to  entitle  the  reign 
of  the  kings,  the  infancy  of  Rome;  for  it  is  certain,  that  under 
them  she  was  hardly  able  to  find  her  own  legs,  and  at  the  best  had 
but  a  very  feeble  motion.  The  greatest  part  of  Romulus's  time 
was  taken  up  in  making  laws  and  regulations  for  the  commonwealth  : 
Three  of  his  state  designs,  I  mean  the  Asylum,  the  rape  of  the  Sa- 
bine virgins,  and  his  way  of  treating  those  few  whom  he  conquered, 
as  they  far  exceeded  the  politics  of  those  times,  so  they  contributed, 

d^h'?'''^'^^''^'^u^''^^''"'"^^'•        '  Phnarcha.s  before;  and  Liv),  :ib.  L 
Ib.d.  and  L.vy,  hb.  1.  f  Floras  in  the  preface  to  his  Ifistory. 


30 


THE    RISE    AND    PROGRESS 


OF  THE   ROMAN   EMPIRE. 


31 


jn  an  fcxtraordinary  tlr-rce,  to  the  a«lvanrriiient  of  the  new  empire. 
But  tluMi  Numa's  lonj5   reij;n  served  only  for  the  establishment  ol 
priests  and   relii:!;li)us  orders;  i\\u\  in  those  three  and  f(»rty  years^ 
Rome  irained  not  so  mueh  as  one  foot  of  j:;roiind.     Tullus  Hostilius 
was  wholly  employed  in  < onvertin-  his  sul)jects  from  the  pleasinj; 
amusements  of  superstition,  to  the   rou-her  institution  of  martial 
diseipline  ;  yet  we  find  no^hin^;  memorable  related  of  his  confpn-sts  ; 
only  that  after  a  Ion- and  dubious  war,  the  llomans  entirely  ruined 
their  old  m<dher  Alba.-      After  him  Ancus  Marcius,  layinn;  aside  all 
thoughts  of  extending  the  bounds  of  tho  em]Mre,  applied  himself 
wholly  to  strengthen  and  bejuitify  the  city;'  and  esteemed  the  cimi- 
modimi^ness  and  ma-nihcence  of  \\nd  the  noblest  design  he  could 
possibly  be  env:a^ed  in.     Tar([uinius  Priscus,thoui;h  not  alto<:ether 
so  r|uie*^t  as  his" predecessor,  yrt  consulted  very  little  else  besides 
the  dlirnity  of  the  senate,  and  the  m.ijesty  of  the  government  ;  for 
the  ii\crease  of  which,  he  api>ointed  tiie  ornaments  and  badges  of 
the  sevi  r:d  ollicers,  to  distitiguish  theui  fnun  the  cmnmon  people.^ 
A  more  peaceful  teinper  appeared  in  Servlus  'I'ullius,  whose  prin- 
cipal study  was  to  have  an  e^act  account  of  the  states  of  the  Ro- 
mans; and,  accordiui!;  to  th(»se,  to  divide  them   into  tribes,    that 
so  they  mii^ht  contribute  with  justice  and  proportion  to  the  public 
e\|)enses  (d'  the  state.     'rar(iuin  the  Proud,  though  perhaps  more 
cn<»-a"-ed  in  wars  than  anv  of  his  predecessors,  yet  had  in  his  nature 
such  a  strange  composition  of  tlie  most  extravagant  vices,  as  must 
necessarily  have  proved  fatal  to  the  v;rowinu;  tyranny;  and  had  not 
the  death  of  the  unfortunate   Lucietia  jMhninistered  to  the  people, 
an   opjmrtunity  of  liberty,  yet  a  far   slighter   matter  would  have 
served  them   for  a  s[>ecious  reason,  to  endeavour  the  assertion  of 
their  rii!:hts.     However,  on  this  accident  all  were  suddenly  trans- 
ported with  such  a  mixture  of  fury  and  compassion,  that  under  the 
conduct  of  Hrutus  and  CoUatiiuis,  to  whon»  the  dying  lady  had  re- 
commended the  revenge  of  her  injured  honour,"'  rushing  immedi- 
ately upon  the  tyrant,  they  expelled  him  and  Ins  whole  fanuly.     A 
new  form  of  jj;(»vernr.ient  wasnow^  resolved  on  ;  and,  because  to  live 
under  a  ilivided  power  carried  somethingof  complacency  in  thepros- 
pect,"  they  unanimously  conferred  the  supreme  command  on  the  two 
generous  assertors  of  their  liberties."     Thus  ended  the  royal  admin- 
istration, after  it  had  continued  about  two  hundred  and  fifty  years. 


r  rintarch  in  the  Life  of  Numa. 
^  Florus,  lib   1.  chap.  3. 
'   Idt  m,  lib.  1.  cha?).  4. 
J   Mem,  lib.  1.  chip.  5. 
^  Idem,  lib.  1.  chap.  6. 


»   rionis,  lib.  1.  chap.  7. 

'n  Id   m.  lib.  1.  chaji.  9. 

"   I'lntarcli  in  the  liifc-  of  Poplicola. 

^   Ibid,  and  IMorus,  lib.  1.  chap.  9. 


i 


Florus,  in  his  reflections  on  this  first  age  of  Rome,  cannot  fcubear 
applauding  the  happy  fate  of  his  country,  that  it  should  be  blessed, 
in  that  weak  age,  with  a  succession  of  piinces  so  fortunately  ditt'er- 
f  nt  in  their  aims  and  designs,  as  if  heaven  had  purposely  adapted 
them  to  the  several  exigencies  of  the  state. »•  And  the  famous  Ma- 
chiavel  is  of  the  same  opinion. '  But  a  judicious  author'  hath  lately 
observed,  that  this  dilference  (d' genius  in  tlie  kings  was  so  far  from 
procuring  any  advantage  to  the  Roman  people,  that  their  small  in- 
crease, under  that  government,  is  referable  to  no  other  cause.  IJovv- 
cver,  thus  far  we  are  assured,  that  those  seven  princes  left  behind 
them  a  dominion  of  no  larger  extent  than  that  of  Parma  or  Mantua 
at  present. 


CHAPTER  III. 

OF   THE   ROMAN     AFFAIRS,   FROM   THE    BEGINNING   OF     THE   CON- 
SULAR  GOVERNMENT  TO   THE     FIRST  PUNIC    WAR. 

THK  i^iaiit  was  no  sooner  expelled,  but,  as  it  usually  happens, 
there  was  great  plotting  and  designing  for  his  restoration.  Amono- 
several  other  youii";  noblemen,  Rrutus's  two  sons  had  enira^-ed  them- 
selves  in  the  association  ;  but  the  conspiracy  being  happily  <liscover- 
ed,  and  the  traitors  brought  before  the  consuls,  in  order  to  their 
punishment,  Brutus  only  addressing  himself  to  his  sons,  and  de- 
manding whether  they  had  any  defence  to  make  against  the  indict- 
ment, upon  their  silence,  ordere<l  them  immediately  to  be  beheaded; 
ami  staying  hiuiself  to  see  the  execution,  committed  the  rest  to  the 
judi!:uient  of  his  colleague."  No  action  among  the  old  Romans  has 
uiade  a  greater  noise  than  this.  It  would  be  exceedindv  diflicult  to 
determine,  whether  it  proceeded  from  a  motion  of  heroic  vrtue,  or 
the  hardness  of  a  cruel  or  unnatural  humour;  or  whether  ambition 
had  not  as  great  a  share  in  it  as  cither.  But  though  the  flame  was  so 
happily  stifled  within  the  city,  it  soon  broke  out  with  greater  fury 
abroad.  For  Tarquin  was  not  only  received  with  all  imaginable  kind- 
ness and  respect  by  the  neighbouring  states,  but  supplied  too  vyith 
all  necessaries,  in  order  to  the  recovery  of  his  dominions.  The  most 
powerful  prince  in  Italy  was  at  that  time  Porsenna,  king  of  Hertru- 
lia  or  Tuscany;  who,  not  content  to  furnish  him  with  the  same  sup- 

P  F!oi".s,  hb  l.ciiaj  .  8.  ^  Monsieur  St.  Evremoni*s  Refiections 

*J  .Viicl«ia\  el's  Discourses  on  Livy,         onth    liciiins  of  »he  K.|..aM  P  oplc,c.l. 
lib.  2.  chap.  12.  «  PUitarch  in  the  Lite  of  Poplicola. 


J^~ 


32 


THE  RISK    AND  PROGRESS 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE. 


SS 


plies  as  the  rest,  approaclu'd  willi  a  numerous  army  in  Kis  behalf  to 
the  very  walls  of  Rome/     The  city  was  in  great  hazard  of  being 
taken,  when  an  admiration  of  the  virtue  and  gallant  disposition  of 
the  Romans  induced  the  besieger  to  a  peace."  The  most  remarkable 
instances  of  this  extraordinary  courage,  were  Codes,  Mutius,  and 
Clxlia.  Codes,  when  the  Romans  were  beaten  back  in  an  unfortu- 
huiate  sallv,  and   the  enemv  made   good  their   pursuit  to  the  very 
bridge,  only  w  ith  the  assistance  of  two  persons  defended  it  against 
(heir  whole    power,  till  his  own  party  broke  it  down  behind ;  and 
then  cast  himself  in  his  armour  into  the  river,  and  swam  over  to  the 
other  side.'     Mutius  having  failed  in  an  attempt  upon   Porsenna's 
person,  and   being  brought  before   the  king  to  be  examined,  thrust 
his  right  hand,  which  had  committed  the  mistake,  into  a  pan  of  coals 
that  stood  ready  for  a  sacrifice.     I'pon  which  generous  action  he 
was  dismissed  without  farther  Injury.  As  for  Clxlia,  slie,  with  other 
noble  virgins,  had  been  delivered  to  tlie  enemy  for  hostages  on  ac- 
count of  a  truce  ;  when,  obtainins;  liberty  to  bathe  themselves  in  the 
Tiber,  sl\e,  iretting  on  horseback  before   the  rest,  encouraged  them 
to  follow  her  throui^h  the  water  to  the  Romans;  though  the  consul 
generouslv  sent  tliem  back  to  the  enemy's  camp.    Porsenna  had  no 
sooner  drawn  ott'his  army,  but  the  Sabines  and  Latins  joined  in  a 
confederacy  against  Rome;  and  though  they  were  extremely  weak- 
need  by  the  desertion  of  Appius  Claudius,  who  went  over  with  five 
thousand  families  to  the  Romans ;  yet  they  could  not  be   entirely 
subdued,  till  they  received  a  total  overthrow  from  Valerius  Popli- 
cola.^^    Rut  the  /Kqui  and  the  Volsci,  tlie  most  obstinate  of  the  La-. 
tins,  and  the  continual  enemies  of  Rt)me,  carried  on  the  remainder 
of  the  war  for  several  years,  till  it  was  happily  concluded  by  Lucius 
Quiiitus,  the  famous  Dictator  taken   from  the  plough,  in  less  than 
fifteen   days  time ;  upon  which   Florus   has  this  remark,  that  •' he 
made  more  than   ordinary  haste  to  his  unfinished    work,"*     Rui 
they    that   made    the    greatest  opposition  were  the  inhabitants  oi 
Veii,  the  head  of  Tuscany,  a  city  not   inferior  to   Rome  either  in 
store  of  arms,  or  multitude  of  soldiers.    They  had  contended  with 
the  Romans,  in  a  long  series  of  battles,  for  glory  and  empire ;  but 
havinii:  been  weakened  and   brouMit  down   in   several  encounters, 
they  were  obliged  to  secure  themselves  within  their  walls:  And, 
altera  ten  years  siege,  the  town  was  forced  and  sacked  by  Camil 
lus.y     In  this  manner  w  ere  the  Romans  extending  their  conquests, 
when  the  irruption  of  the  Gauls  made  a  strange  alteration  in  thr 

f  pint,  in  the  LifV  of  Poplxola,  and  ^^  Ihid. 

i'lonis.  lib.  1.  '^  Florus,  lib.  1.  chap.  11 
«  Phit.  in  the  I.ife  of  Popiicola.  IMiilaich  in  his  Life. 

Plut.  ibid. 


ft  ■ 


aftairs  of  Italy.  They  were  at  this  time  besieging  Cluslum,  a  Tus- 
can city.    The  Clussians  sent  to  the  Romans,  desiring  them  to  in- 
terpose  bv  ambassadors  on  their  belialf.     Their  n^quest  was  easily 
♦'•ranted  antl  three  of  the  Fabii,  persons  of  the  highest  rank  in  the 
city,  dispatched  for  this  purpose  to  the  Gallic  camp.  The  Gauls,  in 
respect  to  the  name  of  Rome,  received  them   with  all  immaginable 
civility;  but  could  by  no  means  be  prevailed  on  to  quit  the  siege. 
Whereupon  the  ambassadors  going  into  the  town,  and  encouraging 
tlie  Clussians  to  a  sally,  one  of  them  was  seen  personally  enga;iing 
in  the  action.     This  being  contrary  to  the  received  law  of  nations, 
was  resented  in  so  high  a  manner  by  the  enemy,  that,  breaking  up 
from   before   Clusium,   the  whole   army  marched   directly  toward 
Ronie.  About  eleven  miles  from  the  city,  they  met  with  the  Roman 
army  commanded  bv  the  militarv  tribunes;   who  engrai^-inir  without 
any  order  or  discipline,  received  an  entire  defeat.  Upon  the  arrival 
of  this  ill  news,  the  greatest  part  of  the  inhabitants  immediately 
(led :  Those  that  resolved  to  stay  fortified  themselves  in  the  capi- 
tol.  The  Gauls  soon  appeared  at  the  city-gates;  and  destroying  all 
with   fire  and  sword,  carried  on  the  siege  of  the   capitol  with   all 
imaginable  fury.  At  last,  resolving  on  a  general  assault,  they  were 
discovered  by  tiie  cackling  of  geese  that  were  kept  for  that  purpose; 
and  as  many  as  had  climbed  that  rampart  were  driven  down  by  the 
valiant  Maidius;  when  Gamillus,  setting  upon  them  in  the  rear  with 
twenty  thou=>and  men  he  got  together  about  the  country,  gave  them 
a  total  overthrow .     The  greatest  part  of  those  that  escaped  out  of 
the  field  were  cut  off,  in  straggling  parties,  by  the  inhabitants  of  the 
neighbouring  towns  and  villages.  The  city  had  been  so  entirely  de- 
molished, that,  upon   the  return  of  the  people,  they  thought  of  re- 
moving to  Veii,  a  city  ready  built,  and  excellently  provided  of  all 
things:  But  being  diverted  from  this  design  by  an  omen   (as  they 
thought,)  they  set  to  the  work  with  such  extraordinary  diligenence 
and  application,  that  within  the   compass   of  a  year  the  whole  city 
was  built.  They  had  scarce  ijained  a  breathin";  time  after  their  trou- 
bles,  when  the  united  powers  of  the  ^Equi,  Volsci,  and  other  inhab- 
itants of  Latium,  at  once  invaded  their  territories.    But  they  were 
soon  over-reached  by  a  strataiiem  of  Camillus,  and  totallv  routed.* 

Nor  had  the  Samnites  any  better  fate,  though  a  people  very  nu- 
merous, and  of  great  experience  in  war.  The  contention  with  tliem 
lasted  no  less  than  fifty  years,**  when  they  were  finally  subdued  by 
Papirius  Cursor."  The  Tarentine  war,  that  followed,  put  an  end  to 
the  entire  conquest  of  Italy.  Tarentum,  a  city  of  great  strength 
and  beauty,  seated  on  the  Adriatic  sea,  was  especially  remarkable 

»  Plut.  in  vit.  Camll.  »  Florus,  lib.  1.  cap.  16.  ^  Li  v.  lib.  10. 


34 


THE   RISE   AND    PROGRESS 


or    THE    ROMAN    EMPIRE. 


35 


for  the  commerce  it  inaiutaineil  with  mo.^l  of  the  neighbouring  coun- 
tries, as  Epirus,  Ulyricum,  Sicily,  dfc.  Among  other  oriiaments 
of  their  city,  they  had  a  spacious  theatre  for  public  sports,  built 
har<l  by  the  sea-shore.  They  happened  to  be  engaged  in  the  cele- 
bration of  some  such  solemnity,  when,  upon  sight  of  the  Roman 
fleet  that  casually  sailed  by  their  coasts,  imagining  them  to  be  ene- 
mie-<,they  immediately  set  upon  them,  and,  killing  the  commander, 
rilb'd  the  greatest  part  of  the  vessels.  Ambassadors  were  soon  dis- 
patched from  Rome  to  demand  satisfaction  ;  but  they  met  with  as 
ill  a  reception  as  the  lleet,  being  disgracefully  sent  away  without  so 
much  as  a  hearing.  Tpon  tliis,  a  war  was  soon  commenced  between 
the  states.  The  Tarentines  weie  increased  by  an  incredible  num- 
ber of  allies  from  all  pai  ts  ;  but  lie  that  matle  the  greatest  appear- 
ance in  their  behalf  was  Fy rrhus  king  of  Kpirus,  the  most  expe- 
rienced general  of  his  time,  liesides  the  choicest  of  his  troops  that 
accompanied  him  in  the  exj)cdition,  he  brought  into  the  field  a  con- 
siderable number  of  elephants,  a  sort  of  beast  scarce  heard  of  till 
that  tiuie  in  Italy.  In  the  first  engagement,  the  Romans  were  in 
fair  hopes  of  a  victory  ;  when  the  fortune  of  the  day  was  entirely 
changed  upon  the  coming  up  of  the  elej)hants,  who  made  such  a 
prodigious  destruction  in  the  Roman  cavali y,  that  the  wlude  army 
was  obliged  to  retire.  But  the  politic  general,  having  experienced 
so  well  the  Roman  coura<»e,  immediatelv  after  the  victorv,  sent  to 
otVer  conditions  for  a  peace,  but  was  absolutely  refused.  In  the 
next  battle,  the  advantage  was  on  the  Roman  side,  who  had  not 
now  such  dismal  a])prehensions  of  the  elephants  as  before.  How- 
ever, tlie  business  came  to  another  engagement,  w  hen  the  elephants, 
over-runninir  whole  ranks  of  their  ow  n  men,  enraijed  by  the  cry  of 
a  young  one  that  had  been  wouniled,  gave  the  Rinnans  an  absolute 
victory.'  'J'uenty-three  thousand  of  the  enemy  were  killed,  and 
Py rrhus  finally  expelled  Italy.  In  this  war  the  Romans  had  a  fair 
opportunity  to  subdue  the  other  parts  that  remained  uiicoiujuered, 
uruler  the  pretext  of  allies  to  the  Tarentines.  So  that  at  this  time, 
about  the  4rrth  year  of  the  building  of  the  city,'  they  had  made 
themselves  the  entire  masters  of  Italy. 


«  Flor.  lib.  1.  chan.  18.         '!  Florus,  ibid.  '  Kutropius,  lib.  2. 


Ibid 


■vivV 


P^ 


CHAPTER  IV. 

OF     IHE    ROMAN    AFFAIRS,     FROM    THE    BEGIXNIXG     OF    THE    FIRST 
PUNIC     WAR    TO    THE    FIRST    TRIUMVIRATE. 

BUT  the  command  of  the  continent  could  not  satisfy  the  Roman 
courage,  especially  while  they  saw  so  delicious  an  isle  as  Sicily  al- 
most within  their  reach:  They  only  waited  an  occasion  t,o  pass  the 
sea,  when  fortune  presented  as  fair  a  one  as  they  could  wish.  The 
inhabitants  of  Messina,  a  Sicilian  city,  made  grievous  complaints  to 
the  senate  of  the  daily  encroachments  of  the  Carthaginians,  a  people 
of  vast  wealth  and  power,  and  that  had  the  same  design  on  Sicily  as 
the  Romans.-  A  fleet  was  soon  maiuied  out  for  their  assistance  ; 
and,  in  two  years  time,  no  less  than  fifty  cities  were  brought  over.'^ 
riie  entire  conquest  of  the  island  quickly  followed ;  and  Sardinia 
and  Corsica  were  taken  in  about  the  same  time  by  a  separate 
squadron.  And  now,  under  the  command  of  Regulus  and  Man- 
lius,  the  consuls,  the  war  was  translated  into  Africa.  Three  hun- 
dred forts  and  castles  were  destroyed  in  their  march,  and  the  vie- 
torious  legions  encamped  under  the  very  walls  of  Carthage.  The 
enemy,  reduced  to  such  straits,  were  obliged  to  apply  themselves 
to  Xantippus,  king  of  the  Lacedaemonians,  the  greatest  captain  of 
the  age;  who  immediately  marched  to  their  assistance  with  a  nu- 
merous and  well-disciplined  army.  In  the  very  first  engagement 
with  the  Romans,  he  entirely  defeated  their  whole  power:  Thirty 
thousand  were  killed  on  the  spot,  and  fifteen  thousand,  with  their 
consul  Regulus,  taken  prisoners.  But,  as  good  success  always  en- 
couraged the  Romans  to  greater  designs,  so  a  contrary  event  did 
but  exasperate  them  the  more.  The  new  consuls  were  immediately 
dis])atched  with  a  jiowerful  navy,  and  a  sufficient  number  of  land 
force.  Several  cam])aigns  were  now  wasted,  w  ithout  any  considera- 
ble advantage  on  either  side  ;  or  if  the  Romans  gained  any  thing  by 
their  victories,  they  generally  lost  as  much  by  shipwrecks;  wh  mi  at 
last,  the  whole  power  of  both  states  being  drawn  together  on  th  sea, 
the  Carthaginians  were  finally  defeated,  with  the  loss  of  125  ships 
sunk  in  the  engagement,  73  taken;  32,000  men  killed,  and  13,000 
prisoners.  Ujk)!!  this  they  were  compelled  to  sue  for  a  peace ;  w  hich, 
after  much  entreaty,  and  upon  very  hard  conditions,  was  at  last  ob- 
tained.' 

But  the  Carthaginians  had  too  great  spirits  to  submit  to  such  un- 
reasonable terms  any  longer  than  their  necessities  obliged  them.  In 

t  Florus,  lib.  2.  chap.  2-  *>  Eutrop.  lib.  2.  ^  Ibid. 


36 


TH£    RISE    AND    PROGRESS 


four  years  time  they  had  got  together  an  army  of  80,Q00  foot,  aiui 
20, ()()()  liorse,  under  the  command  of  the  famous  Hannibal  ;  who, 
forcin;r  a  wavthrou<j:;h  the  Pyrenean  mountains  and  the  Alps,  reputed 
until  tiiat  time  impassable,  descended  with  his  vast  army  into  Italy. 
In  r«»ui  successive  battles  he  defeated  the  Roman  forces  :  in  the  last 
of  which,  at  Cannje,  40,000  of  the  latter  were  killed;'  and  had  he 
not  been  merely  cast  away  by  the  envy  and  ill-will  of  his  own  coun- 
trvnieii,  it  is  more  than  probable  that  he  must  have  entirely  ruined 
the  Roman  state  :"  Hut  supplies  of  men  and  money  being  sometimes 
absolutelv  denied  him, and  never  coming  but  very  slowly,  the  Romans 
had  such  opportunities  to  recruit,  as  they  little  expected  from  so  ex- 
perienced an  adversary.  The  wise  management  of  Fabius  Maximus 
was  the  first  revival  of  the  Roman  cause.  He  knew  very  well  the 
strenji^tli  of  the  enemy ;  and  therefore  marched  against  him  without 
intending  to  hazard  a  battle  ;  but  to  wait  constantly  upon  him,  to 
straiten  his  quarters,  intercept  his  provisions,  and  so  make  the  victo- 
rious army  pine  away  with  penury  and  want.  With  this  design  he 
always  encamped  upon  high  hills,  where  the  horse  could  have  no  ac- 
cess to  him  :  when  they  marched,  he  did  the  same,  but  at  such  a 
distance,  as  not  to  be  compelled  to  an  engagement.  By  this  policy, 
he  so  broke  Hannibal's  army,  as  to  make  him  absolutely  despair  of 
o-ettino-  any  thing  in  Italy.  But  the  conclusion  of  the  war  was  ow- 
ing to  the  conduct  of  Scipio  :  He  had  before  reduced  all  Spain  into 
subjection  ;  and,  now  taking  the  same  course  as  Hannibal  at  first  had 
done,  he  marched  with  the  greatest  part  of  the  Roman  forces  into 
Africa  ;  and,  carrying  all  before  him  to  the  very  walls  of  Carthage, 
obli"-ed  the  enemy  to  call  home  their  general  out  of  Italy,  for  the  de- 
fence of  the  city.  Hannibal  obeyed  ;  and  both  armies  coming  to  an 
eno-ao-ement,  after  a  long  dispute'  wherein  the  commanders  and  sol- 
diers  of  both  sides  are  reported  to  have  outdone  themselves,  the 
victory  fell  to  the  Romans  ;  whereupon  the  enemy  were  obliged 
once  more  to  sue  for  a  peace,  which  was  again  granted  them,  though 
upon  much  harder  conditions  than  before. 

The  Romans,  by  the  happy  conclusion  of  this  war,  had  so  highly 
advanced  themselves  in  the  opinion  of  the  neiglibouring  states,  that 
the  Athenians,  with  the  greatest  part  of  Greece,  being  at  this  time 
miserably  enslaved  by  king  Philip  of  Macedon,  unanimously  petition- 
ed the  senate  for  assistance.  A  fleet,  with  a  sufficient  number  of  land 
forces,  was  presently  dispatched  to  their  relief;  by  whose  valour  the 
tyrant,  after  several  defeats,  was  compelled  to  restore  all  Greece  to 


■  Florus,  lib.  2.  chap. 6. 
•^  KiMiop.  lib.  3, 
n^id. 


^  Corn'  lius  Nepos  in  vit.  Hannibal. 
n  Pi  WAvrh  in  vit.  Fab.  Max. 
•  Eutrop.  lib.  4. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EilPIRE. 


37 


tlieir  ancient  liberties,  obliging  himself  to  pay  an  annual  tribute  to 

the  conquerors.' 

Hannibal,  after  his  late  defeat,  had  applied  himself  to  Antiochus 
king  of  Svria,  who  at  this  time  was  making  great  preparations 
agafnst  thJ  Romans.  Acilius  Glabrio  was  first  sent  to  oppose  him, 
and  had  the  fortune  to  give  him  several  defeats  ;  when  Corne- 
lius Scipio,  the  Roman  admiral,  engageing  with  the  king's  forces  at 
>,ea,  under  the  command  of  Hannibal,  entirely  ruined  the  whole 
fleet ;  which  victorv  beinu:  immediately  followed  by  a  another  as 
^i«rnal  at  land,  the  effeminate  prince  was  contented  to  purchase  a 
peace  at  the  price  of  almost  half  his  kingdom." 

The  victorious  Romans  had  scarce  concluded  the  public  rejoicings 
on  account  of  the  late  success,  when  the  death  of  king  Pliilip  of  Ma- 
cedon presented  them  with  an  occasion  of  a  more  glorious  triumph. 
His  son  Perces,  that  succeeded,  resolving  to  break  with  the  senate, 
applied  himself  wholly  to  raising  torces,  and  procuring  other  neces- 
saries for  a  war.  Never  were  greater  appearances  in  the  field  than 
on  both  sides,  most  of  the  considerable  princes  in  the  world  being 
engaged  in  a  quarrel ;  but  fortune  still  declared  for  the  Romans, 
and  the  greatest  part  of  Perses's  prodigious  army  was  cut  oft  by  the 
consul  .Emilius,  and  the  king  obliged  to  surrender  himself  into  the 
hands  of  the  contiuerer. '  Authors  that  write  of  the  four  monarchies 
here  fix  the  end  of  the  Macedonian  war. 

But  Rome  could  not  think  hei>,elf  secure  amongst  all  these  con- 
(juests,  while  her  old  rival  Carthage  was  yet  standing  :  so  that  upon 
a  slight  provocation,  the  city  after  three  years  siege,  was  taken, 
and  utterlv  razed,  bv  the  valour  of  Publius  Scipio,  grandson,  by 
adoption,  to  him  that  conquered  Hannibal.'' 

Not  long  after,  Attalus,  king  of  Pergamus,  dying  witliout  issue, 
left  his  vast  territories  to  the  Romans  y  and  what  of  Africa  remained 
uncomiuered  was  for  the  most  part  reduced  in  the  Jugurthan  war 
that  immediately  followed;  Jugurtha  himself,  after  several  defeats, 
being  taken  prisoner  by  Marius,  and  brought  in  triumph  to  Rome.* 

And  now,  after  the  defeat  of  the  Teutones  and  Cimbri,  that  had 
made  an  inroad  into  Italv,  with  several  lesser  conquests  in  Asia 
md  other  parts,  the  Mitliridatic  war,  and  the  civil  war  between 
Marius  and  Sylla,  broke  out  both  in  the  same  year."  Sylla  had  been 
^ent  general  against  Mithridates  king  of  Pontus,  who  had  seized  on 
the  greatest  part  of  Asia  and  Achaia  in  a  hostile  manner ;  w  hen,  be- 
fore he  was  got  out  of  Italy,  Sulpicius,  the  tribune  of  the  people, 
md  one  of  Marius's  faction,  prefered  a  law  to  recal  him,  and  to  de- 


«  Eutrop.  lib  4.  -i  Veil.  Patprc.  lib.  1.        »  Rutrop.lib.  4. 

I'  Vlonis  lib,  2  chap-S.       '  '*^i<'-  "  '*''^'  '•^'"  ^» 


Ibid. 


3$ 


THE    RISE   AND  PROGRESS 


OF    THE    ROMAN    EMPIRE. 


3.9 


piite  Marius  in  liis  room ;  upon  this,  8ylla,  leading:  back  his  arnij, 
and  overthrowiiig  Matins  and  Sulpicius  in  his  way,  having  settled 
affairs  at  Rome,  and  banished  the  authors  of  (he  late  sedition,  re- 
turned to  meet  the  forei<;!;n  enemy.'  His  first  exploit  was  the  taking 
of  Athens,  and  ruining  the  famous  mole  in  the  haven'''  Pirxus:  Af- 
terwards, in  two  engagements,  he  killed  and  took  near  130,000  oi 
the  enemy,  and  compelled  Mithridates  to  sue  for  a  truce. *  In  the 
mean  time,  Marius,  beinjL!;  called  home  by  the  new  consuls,  had  ex- 
ercised all  manner  of  cruelty  at  Rome;  whereupon,  taking  the  op- 
portunity of  the  truce,  Sylla  once  more  marched  back  towards  Ita- 
ly. Marius  was  dead  before  his  return  ;>  but  his  two  sons,  and  the 
consuls,  raised  several  armies  to  oppose  him.  But  some  of  the 
troops  being  drawn  over  to  his  party,  and  the  others  routed,  he  en- 
tered the  city,  and  disposed  all  things  at  his  pleasure,  assuming  the 
title  and  authority  of  a  perpetual  dictator.  Hut  having  regulated 
the  state,  he  laid  down  that  oflice,  and  died  in  retirement. 

Mithridates  had  soon  broke  the  late  truce,  and  invaded  Bithynia 
and  Asia,  with  as  great  fury  as  ever;  when  the  Roman  geiieral  Lu- 
cullus,  routing  his  vast  armies  by  land  and  sea,  chased  them  quite 
(mt  of  Asia;  and  had  infallibly  put  a  happy  conclusion  to  the  war, 
hand  not  fortune  reserved  that  glory  for  Pompey."  He  being  deput- 
ed in  the  room  of  Lucullus,  after  the  defeat  of  the  new  forces  of 
Mithridates,  compelled  him  to  fly  to  his  father-in-law  Tigranes 
king  of  Armenia.  Pompey  followed  with  his  army,  and  struck  such 
a  terror  into  the  whole  kingdom,  that  Tigranes  was  constrained,  in 
a  humble  manner,  to  present  himself  to  the  general,  and  offer  his 
realm  and  fortune  to  his  disposal.  At  this  time  the  Catilinarian 
conspiracy  broke  out,  more  famous  for  the  obstinacy  than  the  num- 
ber of  the  rebels;  but  this  was  immediately  extinguished  by  the 
timely  care  of  Cicero,  and  the  haj)py  valour  of  Antony.  The  senate, 
upon  the  news  of  the  extraordinary  success  of  Pompey,  were  un- 
der some  apprehension  of  his  affecting  the  supreme  command  at  his 
return,  and  altering  the  constitution  of  the  government.  But  when 
they  saw  him  dismiss  his  vast  army  at  Brundusium,  and  proceed  in 
the  rest  of  his  journey  to  the  city  with  no  other  company  than  his 
ordinary  attendants,  they  received  him  with  all  the  expressions  of 
complacency  and  satisfaction,  and  honoured  him  with  a  splendid 
triumph.'' 


"■•  Eutrop.  lib-  5. 

^'  Veil  P:Uerc.  lib.  ?. 

•'^  Kutrop.  lib.  5. 


>  Veil.  P..terc.  lib.  2. 

^  AuPflius  V  ictor.  in  vit.  S\llae. 

'  Vfil  Patcrc.  lib.  ?.  '         ^  \h\r 


CHAPTER  V. 

OF    TUK    HOMAN    AFFAIRS,    FROM    THE    BEGINNING    OF    THE    FIRST 
TRIUMVIRATE    TO    THE    END    OF    THE    TWELVE    CiESARS. 

THE  three  persons,  that  at  this  time  bore  the  greatest  sway  in  the 
slate,  were  Crassus,  Pompey,  and  Caesar ;  the  first  by  reason  of  his 
prodigious  wealth;  Pompey,  for  his  power  with  the  soldiers  and  se- 
nate ;  and  Cicsar,  for  his  admirable  eloquence,  and  a  peculiar  noble- 
ness of  spirit:  when,  now  taking  advantage  of  the  consulship  of 
Caesar,  they  entered  into  a  solemn  agreement  to  let  nothing  pass  in 
the  commonwealth  without  their  joint  approbation.*^  By  virtue  of 
this  alliance,  they  had,  in  a  little  time,  procured  themselves  the 
three  best  provinces  in  the  empire,  Crassus,  Asia;  Pompey,  Spain ; 
and  Caesar,  Gaul.  Pompey,  for  the  better  retaining  his  authority 
in  the  city,  chose  to  manage  his  province  by  deputies ;''  the  other 
two  entered  on  their  governments  in  person.  But  Crassus  soon 
after,  in  an  expedition  he  undertook  against  the  Parthians,  had  the 
ill  fortune  to  lose  the  greatest  part  of  his  army,  and  was  himself 
treacherously  murdered.'  In  the  mean  time,  Caesar  was  perform- 
ing wonders  in  Gaul.  No  less  than  40,000  of  the  enemy  he  had 
killed,  and  taken  more  prisoners;  and  nine  years  together  (which 
was  the  whole  time  of  his  government)  deserved  a  triumph  for  the 
actions  of  every  campaign.'  The  senate,  amazed  at  the  strange 
relation  of  his  victories,  were  easily  inclined  to  suspect  his  power  ; 
so  that,  taking  tlie  opportunity  when  he  petitioned  for  a  second  con- 
sulship, they  ordered  him  to  disband  his  army,  and  appear  as  a  pri- 
vate person  at  the  election. '  Caesar  endeavoured  by  all  means  to 
come  to  an  accommodation;  but  finding  the  senate  violently  averse 
to  his  interest,  and  resolved  to  hear  nothing  but  what  they  first  pro- 
posed, he  was  constrained  to  inarch  towards  Italy  with  his  troops 
to  terrify  or  force  them  into  a  compliance.  Upon  the  news  of  his 
•ij.proach,  the  senate,  with  the  greatest  part  of  the  nobility,  passing 
over  into  Greece,  he  entered  the  city  without  opposition,  and,  cre- 
ating himself  consul  and  dictator,  hasted  with  his  army  into  Spain  ; 
where  the  troops  under  Pompey's  deputies  were  compelled  to  sub- 
mit themselves  to  his  disposal.  With  this  reinforcement  he  ad- 
vanced towards  Macedonia,  where  the  senate  had  got  together  a 
prodigious  army,  under  the  command  of  Pompey.  In  the  first  en- 
gagement, he  received  a  considerable  defeat ;  but  the  whole  power 

'  Suet,  ill  Jul.  Caes,  chap.  19.         «  p|„K.rcli.  in  Crasso.        f^  Ibid.  chap.  49. 
Haterc.  lib.  2.  chap.  48.  f  Paterc.  lib.  2.  *»  Ibid.  c.  cod. 


-'10 


Tire    K\^r     AM)    I'ROGRtSb 


or    THE    ROMAN    EMPIRE. 


41 


on  botli  siilrs  Ix'iii^  <liaun  up  on  the  ])lains  of  'I'lit'ssalv,  aiUi  d 
h)]vr  (\i<\)\V{',  tli(*  victory  fVll  to  C  xsiir,  with  the  entire  ruin  of  the 
advtMse  |j;irty,  Pompov  fled  directly  towards  Egypt,  and  Cscsar, 
witli  lii,-*  victorious  legions,  iuuiiediately  followed.  Hearing,  at  hi?; 
arrival,  that  Ponipey  had  been  killed  by  order  of  kin^  Ptolemy,  ho 
laid  cl  »se  sieu;e  to  Alexaiidria  the  capital  city;  and  having  niad'^ 
himself  absolute  niastei-  of  the  kingdom,  committed  it  to  the  care  ot 
Cle-'patra,  sister  to  the  late  king.  8cipio  and  Juba  he  soon  after 
overcauR'  in  Afiica,  ajid  Pcnnpev 's  two  sons  in  Spain.'  And  now 
bein<4  received  at  his  return  with  the  general  applause  of  the  peoj'le 
and  senate,  and  honourei!  with  the  gloiious  titles  of  "  Father  of  his 
countrv,"  and  *'  perpetual  di<  tator,"  he  was  designing  an  expedi- 
tion into  Parthia;  when,al>crtlie  enjoyment  of  the  supreme  command 
no  more  than  five  months,  he  was  murdered  in  the  senate-house  ;•* 
Brutus  and  Cassius,  with  most  of  the  other  conspirators,  being  his 
particular  friends,  and  such  as  he  had  obliged  in  the  highest  manner. 
A  civil  war  necessarily  foIlowe<l,  in  which  the  senate,  consisting 
for  the  most  part  of  such  as  had  embraced  the  faction  of  Pompey, 
declared  in  favour  of  the  assassins,  while  Mark  AntouN,  the  consul, 
unilertook  the  revenge  (d*  Caesar.  AVith  this  pretence  he  exercised 
all  manner  of  tyraimv  in  the  city,  and  had  no  other  design  but  to  se- 
cure  the  chief  command  to  himself.  At  last  the  senate  were  obliged 
to  declare  iilm  an  enemv  to  the  state;  and,  in  pursuance  of  their 
edict,  raised  an  army  to  o]>pose  him,  under  the  command  of  ilirtius 
and  Pansa,  the  new  con:  uls,and  Octavius,  nephew  and  heir  to  Caesar.' 
In  tlie  first  eii'^agement  Antony  was  defeated;  but  Hirtius  being 
killed  in  tlie  fight,  and  Pansa  dying  immediately  after,  the  sole  com- 
mand of  the  army  came  into  the  hands  of  Octavius."  The  senate, 
befMe  t'te  lute  victory,  had  expressed  an  extraordinary  kindness  for 
him,  and  honoured  him  with  several  marks  of  their  particular  esteem  ; 
but  now  being  freed  from  the  danger  they  apprehended  from  Antony, 
they  soon  altered  their  measures;  and,  taking  little  notice  of  him 
any  lont^er,  decreed  to  the  two  heads  of  the.  late  conspiracy,  lirutus 
and  Cassius,  the  two  provinces  of  Syria  and  Macedonia,  whither  they 
had  retired  upon  commission  of  the  fact.'  Octavius  was  very  sensi- 
ble ()(  their  designs,  and  thereupon  was  easily  induced  to  conclude  a 
peace  with  Antony  ;  and  soon  after,  entering  into  an  association 
with  him  and  Lepidus,  as  his  uncle  had  done  with  Crassus  and  Pom- 
pey, he  returned  to  Rome,  and  was  elected  consul  when  under  twenty 
years  of  age."     And  now ,  by  the  power  of  him  and  his  two  asso- 


<  lates,  the  old  senate  was  for  the  most  part  banished,  and  a  law  pre- 
ferred by  his  colleague  Pedius,  that  all  who  had  been  concerned  in 
the  death  of  Caesar  should  be  proclaimed  enemies  to  the  common- 
wealth, and  proceeded  against  with  all  extremity. i*  To  put  this  order 
in  execution,  Octavius  and  Antony  advanced  with  the  forces  under 
their  command  toward  Macedonia,  where  Brutus  and  Cassius  had 
got  to«i;ether  a  numerous  army  to  oppose  them ;  both  parties  meeting 
near  the  city  Philippi,  the  traitors  were  defeated,  and  the  two  com- 
manders died  soon  after  by  their  own  hands. >  And  now  for  ten 
years  all  aftairs  were  managed  by  the  Triumviri;  when  Lepidus, 
setting  up  for  himself  in  Sicily,  was  contented,  upon  the  arrival  of 
Octavius  to  compound  for  his  life,  with  the  dishonourable  resigna- 
tion of  his  share  in  the  government.'  The  friendship  of  Octavius 
and  Antony  was  not  of  much  longer  continuance ;  for  the  latter  be- 
ing, for  several  enormities,  declared  an  enemy  to  the  state,  was 
finally  routed  in  a  sea-engagement  at  Actium ;  and,  flying  thence 
with  his  mistress  Cleopatra,  killed  himself  soon  after,  and  left  the 
sole  command  in  the  hands  of  Octavius.  He,  by  his  prudence  and 
moderation,  gained  such  an  entire  interest  in  the  senate  and 
people,  that  when  he  offered  to  lay  down  all  the  authority  he  was  in- 
vested with  above  the  rest,  and  to  restore  the  common w^ealth  to 
the  ancient  constitution,  they  unanimously  agreed  in  this  opinion, 
that  their  liberty  was  sooner  to  be  parted  with,  than  so  excel- 
lent a  prince.  However,  to  avoid  all  oftence,  he  rejected  the  verv 
names  he  thought  might  be  displeasing,  and  above  all  things,  the 
title  of  Dictator,  which  had  been  so  odious  in  Sylla  end  Caesar.  By 
this  means  he  was  the  founder  of  that  government  which  continued 
ever  after  in  Rome.  The  new  acquisitions  to  the  empire  were,  in  his 
time,  very  considerable  ;  C!antabria,  Aquitania,  Pannonia,  Dalmatia, 
;ind  Illyricum,  being  wholly  subdued  ;  the  Germans  were  driven  be- 
yond the  river  Albis,  and  two  of  their  nations,  the  Sucvi  and  Sicam- 
bri,  transplanted  into  Gaul.** 

Tiberius,  though  in  Augustus's  time  he  had  given  proofs  of  an  ex- 
traordinary courage  in  the  German  war;*  yet  upon  his  own  acces- 
sion to  the  crown,  is  memorable  for  no  exploit  but  the  reducing  of 
Capj)adocia  into  a  Roman  province  ;"  and  this  was  owing  more  to 
his  cunning  than  his  valour.  And  at  last,  upon  his  infamous  retire- 
ment into  the  island  Capreae,  he  grew  so  strangely  negligent  of  the 
public  af!airs,  as  to  send  no  lieutenants  for  the  government  of  Spain 
and  Syria  for  several  years  ;  to  let  Armenia  be  over-run  by  the  Par- 
thians,  Moesia  by  the  Dacians  and  the  vSarmatians,  and  almost  all 


ij^^j 


♦  S  .lal.  Caes  c.35. 

J  I:>  ,         .  o<'. 

^  I'uterc.  lib.  -?.  c.  56. 


«  P,»ten\  lib.  2  c.  61-  o  Patcrc.  Ub.  2.  c.  6. 

•"  Suet   in  Au^MJst  c.  11. 
n  P'lorus,  lib   4.  c.  7. 


P  Patcrc.  Iib.2.  r.  65. 
•^  Florus,  lib.2.c.  7. 
Paterc.  llb.2.  c.  80. 


«  Si u  ton.  in  August,  c.  21. 
«•  Paterc    lib.  2.  chap.  106,  &c. 
»  Eutrop.  lib.  7. 


\ 


43 


IIIE    RISE   AND  PROGRESS 


OF    THE    ROMAN    EMPIRE. 


43 


Gaul  by  the  Germans  ;  to  the  extreme  daii«^er  as  well  as  dishoiiour 
of  the  empire.  Caligula,  as  he  far  exceeded  his  predecessor  in  all 
maimer  of  dehaucijery,  so,  in  relation  to  martial  affairs,  was  much 
Ids  inferior.  However,  he  is  famous  for  a  mock-expedition,  that  he 
made  au;ainst  tlie  Germans;  when  arrivinii;  in  that  part  of  the  T.on^^ 
Countries  w  hich  is  op|)osite  to  Britain,  and  receiving;  into  his  protec- 
tion a  fu;i;itive  prince  of  the  island,  he  sent  j^lorious  letters  to  the  se- 
nate, j^iving  an  account  of  the  happy  conquest  of  the  whole  king- 
dom.*^ And  soon  after,  making  his  soldiers  fill  their  helmets  with 
cyckle-shells  and  pebbles,  which  he  called  "the  spoilaof  the  ocean,'** 
return  to  the  city  to  denifind  a  triumph  ;  and  when  that  honour  was 
denied  him  by  ti»e  senate,  he  broke  out  in  such  extravagant  cruelties, 
that  he  even  compelled  them  to  cut  him  off,  for  the  security  of  tlieir 
own  persons. y  Nay,  he  was  far  from  entertaining  any  desire  of  be- 
nefiting the  public,  that  he  often  complained  of  his  ill  fortune,  De- 
cause  no  signal  calamity  happened  in  his  tinie,  and  made  it  his  con- 
stant wish,  that  either  the  utter  destruction  of  an  army,  or  some 
plague,  famine,  earthquake,  or  other  extraordinary  desolation, 
might  continue  the  memory  of  his  reign  to  succeeding  ages.» 

Caligula  being  taken  off,  the  senate  assembled  in  the  capitol,  to 
debate  about  the  extinguishing  the  name  and  family  of  the  Caesars, 
and  restoring  the  commonwealth  to  the  old  constitution."  When  one 
of  the  soldiers,  that  were  ransacking  the  palace,  lighting  casu;dly 
upon  ('laudius,  uncle  to  the  late  emperor,  where  he  had  hid  hin\self 
in  a  corner  behind  the  hangings,  pulled  Idm  out  to  the  rest  of  his 
!ranir,  and  recommended  him  as  the  fitest  person  in  the  world  to  be 
rmperor.  All  were  strangely  pleased  at  the  motion;  and  taking  him 
along  with  them  by  force,  lodged  him  among  tlie  guards. '  The  se- 
nate, upon  the  first  information,  sent  immediately  to  stop  their  pro- 
reedinirs;  but  not  ayrreeinij:  amonir;  themselves,  and  hearing  the  mui- 
titude  call  out  for  one  governor,  they  were  at  last  constrained  to 
confirm  the  election  of  the  soldiers  ;  especially  since  they  had  pitch- 
ed upon  such  an  easy  prince  as  would  be  wholly  at  their  command 
and  disposal.  The  conquest  of  Britain  was  the  most  memorable 
thing  in  his  time ;  owing  partly  to  an  expedition  that  he  made  in  per- 
son, but  chiefly  to  the  valour  of  his  lieutenants  Osorius,  Scapula, 
Aulus  Plautius,  and  Vespasian.  The  bounds  of  the  empire  were  in 
his  reign  as  foll(»vv :  Mesopotamia  in  the  east,  Rliine  and  Danube  in 
the  north ;  Mauritania  in  the  south,  and  Britian  in  the  west."* 


^'  Sucton.  In  Tib.  chap.  41. 
^^Sufton.in  ('ulig.  chap.  46. 
^  Mem,  cliap.  4G. 
y  Idem,  chap.  47. 


''■  Idem,  cliap.  49  and  56. 

•'  Idf  m,  ch:ip.  51.  ^  Idem,  chap.  60. 

<^  Idem,  in  Claud,  clmp    10. 

^  Aurelius  Victor  de  Caesuribus  in  Culigula. 


Tlie  Roman  arms  cannot  be  supposed  to  have  made  any  consid- 
erable progress  under  Nero;  especially  when  Suetonius  tells  us,  he 
neither  hoped  or  desired  the  enlargement  of  the  empire.'  How- 
ever, two  counti  ies  were  in  his  time  reduced  into  Roman  provinces : 
the  kingdom  of  Pontus,  and  the  Cottian  Alpes,  or  that  part  of  the 
mountains  which  divides  Dauphine  and  Piedmont.  Britain  and  Ar- 
menia were  once  both  lost,  and  not  without  greatdlfficulty  recovered. 
^And  indeed,  his  aver^eness  to  the  camp  made  him  far  more  odious 
to  the  soldiers,  than  all  his  other  vices  to  the  people  ;  so  that  when 
the  citizens  had  the  patience  to  endure  hiin  for  fourteen  years,  the 
army  under  Galba,  his  lieutenant  in  Spain,  were  constrained  to  un- 
dertake his  removal. 

Galba  is  acknowledged  on  all  hands  for  the  great  reformer  of  mar- 
tial discipline  ;  and  though,  befi)re  his  accession  to  the  empire,  he 
had  been  famous  for  his  exploits  in  Germany,  and  other  parts;'  yet 
the  shortness  of  his  reign  hindered  him  from  making  any  advance- 
ments afterwards.  His  age  and  severity  were  the  only  causes  of  his 
ruin :  the  first  of  which  rendered  him  contemptible,  and  the  othc 
odious;  and  the  remedy  he  used  to  appease  the  dissatisfactions  did 
but  ripen  them  for  revenge.  For  immediately  upon  his  adopting 
Piso,  by  which  he  hoped  to  have  pacified  the  people,  Otho,  who  had 
ever  expected  that  honour,  and  was  now  enraged  at  his  disappoint- 
ment,' upon  application  made  to  the  soldiers,  easily  procured  the 
murder  of  the  old  prince  and  his  adopted  son  ;  and  by  that  means 
was  himself  advanced  to  the  imperial  dignity. 

About  the  same  time,  the  German  army  under  Vitellius,  having  an 
equal  aversion  to  the  old  emperor  with  those  at  Rome,  had  sworn 
allegiance  to  their  own  comiuander.  Otho,  upon  the  first  notice  of 
their  designs,  had  sent  to  proffer  Vitellius  an  equal  sliare  in  the  go- 
vernment with  himself.  But  all  proposals  for  an  accommodation  be- 
ing refused,  and  himself  compelled,  as  it  were,  to  march  against  the 
forces  that  were  sent  towards*  Italy,  he  had  the  good  fortune  to  de- 
feat them  in  three  small  engagements.  But  having  been  worsted 
in  a  greater  fight  at  Bebriacum,  though  he  had  still  sufficient 
strength  for  carrying  on  the  war,  and  expected  daily  a  reinforce- 
ment from  several  parts  ;  vet  he  could  not,  bv  all  the  arguments  in 
tlie  world,  be  prevailetl  with  to  hazard  another  battle  ;  but  to  en«l 
the  contention,  killed  himself  with  his  own  hands.  On  this  accoun.f , 
Pagan  authors,  tliougii  they  represent  his  life  as  the  most  exact  pic- 
ture of  unmanly  softness,  yet  they  generally  confess  his  death  equal 

,    *  Aurelius  Victor  de  Cxsaribus  '»  Idem,  cliap   17. 

"^  Claud.  i  Suetou.  in  Othon.  chap.  ^ 

*  Sueton.  in  Nerone,  chap.  18,  •  Idem,  chap  9. 

5  Si!rt.  in  (.;ulba,  chan.  S. 


\9. 


i4 


THE    RISK  AND  PROGRESS 


totlu'  mhU'st  of  ant'uputy;  and  the  same  poet,'' that  has  given  hiiii. 
the  histirig  title  o(  Mollis  Otho,  has  yet  set  him  in  competition  with 
Ihe  famous  Cato,  m  reference  to  the  final  action  of  his  life. 

It  has  been  observed  of  Vitellius,  that  he  obtained  tiie  empire  by 
^ehe  sole  valour  of  his  lieutenants,  and  lost  it  purely  on  his  own  ac- 
count. His  extreme  luxury  and  cruelty  were  for  this  reason  the 
more  detestable,  because  he  hud  been  advanced  to  that  dignity  un- 
der the  notion  of  the  patron  of  his  country,  and  the  restorer  of  the 
rights  and  liberties  of  the  people.  Within  eight  months  time  the 
provincial  armies  had  unanimously  agreed  on  Vespasian  for  their 
emperor;  and  the  tyrant,  after  he  hat!  been  strangely  mangled  by 
tlie  extreme  fury  of  the  soldiers  and  rabble,  was  at  last  dragged  into 
tlie  river  Tiber.'" 

The  republic  was  so  far  from  making  any  advancement  under  the 
disturbances  of  the  three  last  reigns,  that  she  must  necessarily  have 
felt  the  fatal  consequences  of  them,  had  she  not  been  seasonably  re- 
lieved by  the  happy  management  of  Vespasian.  It  was  a  handsome 
turn  of  some  of  his  friends,  when,  by  order  of  Caligula,  his  bosom 
had,  by  way  of  punishment,  been  stutVed  with  dirt,  to  put  thi.-  inter- 
pretation on  the  accident,  that  the  commonwealth  being  miserably 
abused,  and  even  trodden  under  foot,  should  hereafter  fly  to  his 
bosom  for  prot(;ction."  And  indeed,  he  seems  to  have  made  it  his 
wliole  care  and  dcsio-n  to  reform  the  abuses  of  the  city  and  state, 
occasioned  by  the  licentiousness  of  tUv  late  times.  Nine  provinces 
he  added  to  the  empire,"  and  was  so  very  exact  in  all  circumstances 
of  his  life  and  conduct,  that  one,  N\ho  ha-  examined  them  both  with 
all  the  niceness  imaginable,  can  find  nothing  in  either  that  deserves 
reprehension,  except  an  immoderate  desire  of  riches.'  And  he 
covertly  excuses  him  for  this,  by  extolling  at  the  same  time  his  ex- 
traordinary magnificence  and  libtiality. 

But  perhaps  he  did  not  more  oblige  the  world  by  his  own  reign, 
than  by  leaving  so  admirable  a  successor  as  his  son  Titus,  the  only 
prince*^in  the  world  that  has  the  character  of  never  doing  an  ill  ac- 
tion. He  had  given  sufticient  proof  of  his  courage  in  the  famous 
siege  of  Jerusalem,  and  mii^^ht  have  met  with  as  good  success  in  other 
parts,  had  he  not  been  prevented  by  an  untimely  death,  to  the  uni- 
versal grief  of  mankind. 

But  then,  Domitian  so  far  degenerated  from  the  two  excellent  ex- 
amples of  his  father  and  brother,  as  to  seem  more  emulous  of  copying 
Nero  and  Caligula.    However,  as  to  martial  aftairs,he  was  as  happv 


^  Martial. 

'   Siieton.  in  Vitel.  chap.  13. 

'^  1(1.  ioid.  cluip.  17. 

"  Suetou  in  \  espus.  chap.  "J, 


o  R'li  op.  li:).  7 
P  id.   bill  chap.  16. 
<i  Id.  ibid.  chap.  17,  18 


•  •        • 


•    •  • 


•  •  r 


•  •  •  • 


I  *     •   •    . 


«  -    c  •  k      •  • 


.VAl'>l.\('lll.K    J  I)     K.ST    .V.\\'.\l,  k'«     n'll.V.K     l)ft.SCJ'iJ.WTlD 

K\  (>iiii|>lir   r.-iiiviiiio . 


/'u/'h.rflrrl     /•!    Ifiikiit'ii,    n-H,tiZ,tni .  J.''/ (?lr:rri7lf  .^7 . 


OF  THE  ROMAN  E]^IPIRE. 


45 


ip 


as  most  of  his  predecessors,  having,  in  four  expeditions,  subdued 
the  Catti,  Daci,  and  the  Sarniatians,  and  extinguished  a  civil  war 
in  the  first  bejijinnin::;.'  Bv  this  means  he  liad  so  entirelv  jjained  the 
att'«'ctions  of  the  soldiers,  that  when  we  meet  with  his  nearest  rela- 
tions, and  even  his  very  wife,  engaged  in  his  murder,^  yet  we  find 
the  army  so  extremely  dissatisfied,  as  to  have  wanted  only  a  leader 
to  revenge  his  death.* 


CHAPTER  VI. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  AFFAIRS,  FROM  D(^M1TIAN  TO  THE  END  OF  CON- 

STANTINE  THE  GREAT. 

THE  two  following  emperors  have  been  deservedly  styled  the  re- 
storers of  the  Roman  grandeur;  which,  by  reason  of  the  viciousness 
or  negligence  of  t!ie  former  princes,  had  been  extremely  impaired. 

Nerva,  though  a  person  of  extraordinary  courage  and  virtue,  yet 
did  not  enjoy  the  empire  long  enough  to  be  on  any  other  account  so 
jneuKMuble,  as  for  substituting  so  admirable  a  successor  in  his  room 
as  Trajan. 

It  was  he,  that  for  the  happiness  which  attended  his  undertakings, 
and  for  his  just  and  regular  administration  of  the  government,  has 
been  set  in  competition  even  with  Romulus  himself.  It  was  he  that 
advanced  the  bounds  of  tiie  empire  farther  than  all  his  predecessors, 
leducing  into  Romean  provinces  the  five  vast  countries  of  Dacia,  As- 
syria, Armenia,  Mesopotamia,  and  Arabia."  And  yet  his  prudent 
management  in  peace  has  been  generally  preferred  to  his  exploits  in 
war;  his  justice,  candour  and  liberality,  having  gained  him  such  an 
universal  esteem  and  veneration,  that  he  was  even  deified  before  his 
<leath. 

Adrian's  character  was  generally  more  of  the  scholar  than  the  sol- 
dier ;  upon  which  account,  as  much  as  out  of  envy  to  his  predecessor, 
he  slighted  three  of  the  provinces  that  had  been  taken  by  Trajan,' 
and  was  contented  to  fix  the  bounds  of  the  empire  at  the  river  Eu' 
phrates.v  But  perhaps  he  is  the  first  of  the  Roman  emperors  that 
ever  took  a  circuit  round  his  dominions,  as  we  are  assured  he  did.w 

Antonius  Pius  studied  more  the  defence  of  the  empire  than  the 
enlargenient  of  it.  However,  his  admirable  prudence,  and  strict  re- 


'  Sueton.  in  Domit.  chap.  6. 
'  1*1.  ibid,  chap,  U. 


8 


f  M.  ibid.  chap.  23. 
»  Eutrop.  lib.  B. 


^  Id  'ib.  8. 
^Md.ibid. 


4G 


TH£   RISi:    AND  PROGRESS 


formation  of  manners,  rendered   luni  pcHiaps  a>  serviceable  to  ihr 
fominoinvcalth  as  the  <j;reatost  cofujui-rors. 

The  two  Antonini,  Marcus  and  Lucius,  were  they  that  Uiade  the 
fir^t  division  of  the  .'mi)ire.  They  an'  both  famous  for  a  successful 
expedition  a^rainst  the  Parlhians;  and  the  former,  who  was  the 
h)n-e->t  liver,  is  especially  remarkable  for  his  extraordinary  learn- 
int^,  and  strict  profession  of  .Stoicism ;  whence  he  has  obtained  the- 
n;in»e  of  "  the  philosopher." 

Commodus  was  as  noted  for  all  manner  of  extravagancies,  as  his 
fatlier  had  been  for  the  contrary  virtues ;  and,  after  a  very  short  en- 
joyment of  the  empire,  was  murdered  by  one  of  his  mistresses.^ 

Pertinax,  too,  was  immediately  cut  ofi'by  the  soldiers,  who  found 
him  a  more  ri^id  exactoi- of  discipline  than  they  had  been  lately 
used  to.  And  now  claimiuii;  to  themselves  the  privilege  of  choosing 
an  emptM-or,  they  fairly  exposed  the  dignity  to  sale.> 

Didius  Julian  was  the  highest  l)idder,  and  was  thereupon  invest- 
ed with  the  honour.  But  as  he  only  exposed  himself  to  ridicule  by 
such  a  mad  project,  so  he  was  in  an  instant  made  away  with,  iu 
hopes  of  another  bargain.  Zosimus  makes  him  no  better  than  a  sort 
of  an  empefor  in  a  dream.* 

Rut  the  Roman  vahmr  and  <liscipline  were  in  a  great  measure  re- 
stored by  Severus.  Resides  a  famous  victory  over  the  Parthians,  the 
old  enemies  of  Rome,  he  subdued  the  irreatest  part  of  Persia  and 
Arabia,  and  marching  into  this  island,  Britain,  delivered  the  poor 
niitives  from  the  miserable  tyranny  of  the  Scots  and  Picts,  which 
an  excellent  hi<itorian"  calls  the  greatest  honour  of  his  reign. 

Antoninus  Caracalla  had  as  much  of  a  martial  spirit  in  him  as  his 
father,  but  died  before  he  could  design  any  thing  memorable,  except 
an  expedition  against  the  Parthians,  which  he  had  just  undertaken. 

Opilius  Macrinus,  and  his  son  Diadumen,  had  made  very  little 
noise  in  the  world,  when  they  w  ere  cut  ott' without  much  disturbance, 
to  make  room  for  Ileliogabalus,  son  of  the  late  emperor. 

If  he  was  extremely  pernicious  to  the  empire  by  his  extravagant 
debaucheries,  his  successor  Alexander  Serverus  was  as  serviceable 
to  the  state  in  restoring  justice  and  discipline.  His  noblest  exploit 
was  an  expedition  against  the  Persians,  in  which  he  overcame  their 
famous  king  Xerxes. •» 

Maximin,  the  first  that  from  a  common  soldier  aspired  to  the  eir*- 
pire  was  soon  taken  otf  by  Pupienus,  and  he,  with  his  colleague  Ral 
binus,  quickly  followed,  leaving  the  supreme  command  to  Gordian,  u 
prince  of  great  valour  and  fortune,  and  who  might  probably  have  ex- 


•  •  • « 

s         «     « 

r 

« 

«  «  •  • 

V:. 


•  »  » 


*  Zosinnis,  llist.hb   1. 
"  /EUus  Spartian.  in  Sever. 


V  Ibid. 

^  Eutrop.  lib.  S. 


Y  Ibid. 


•  •         •         •  ,• 

*        •  •  •  •  • 

•••••  ,  •••• 

•  •  •  •  •  • 

•  •  •  ••      •••  •-, 

.v.*. .  •  .••• 

*  •  •  •  • 


I  •  •  •  • 


••.-. 


•  ■  t  • 

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•••••         •        *        •••• 

.••..    '..,•*    .*.•. 

•  t  •  < 


•  • 


• 


Itllvnf'hrt/  Sc. 


OF    THE    ROMAN    EMPIRE, 


47 


uiiguished  the  very  name  of  the  Persians,  had  he  not  been  treach- 
erously murdered  by  Philip,  w  ho,  within  a  very  little  time,  sutlered 
the  like  fortune  himself. 

Dccius,  in  the  former  part  of  his  reign,  had  been  very  successful 
against  the  Scythians  and  other  barbarous  nations:  but  was  at  last 
killed,  together  with  his  son,  in  an  unfortunate  engagement.'^ 

But  then  Gallus  not  only  struck  up  a  shameful  league  with  the 
barbarians,  but  ^uttered  them  to  over-run  all  Thrace,  Thessaly, 
Macedon,  Greece,  ^'c 

They  were  just  threatening  Italy,  when  his  successor  iEmilian 
chased  them  otf  with  a  prodigious  slaughter  ;  and,  upon  the  promo- 
tion to  the  empire,  promised  the  senate  to  recover  all  the  Roman 
territories  that  had  been  entirely  lost,  and  to  clear  those  that  were 
over-run.  liut  he  was  prevented  after  three  months  reign  by  the 
common  fate  of  the  emperors  of  that  time. 

After  him.  Valerian  was  so  unfortunate  as  to  lose  the  greatest  pari 
of  his  army  in  an  expedition  against  the  Persians,  and  to  be  kept 
prisoner  himself  in  that  country  till  the  time  of  his  death.s 

Upon  the  taking  of  Valerian  by  the  Persians,  the  management  of 
affairs  was  committed  to  his  son  Gallienus;  a  prince  so  exremely 
negligent  and  vicious,  as  to  become  the  equal  scorn  and  contempt  ol 
both  sexes.'  The  looseness  of  his  government  gave  occasion  to  the 
usurpation  of  the  thirty  tyrants,  of  whom  some  indeed  truly  deserved 
that  name  ;  others  were  persons  of  great  courage  and  virtue,  and 
very  serviceable  to  the  commonwealth.'  In  his  time  the  Almains, 
after  they  had  wasted  all  Gaul,  broke  into  Italy.  Dacia,  which  had 
been  gained  by  Trajan,  was  entirely  lost;  all  Greece,  Macedon, 
Pontus,  and  Asia,  over-run  by  the  Goths.  The  Germans,  too,  had 
proceeded  as  far  as  Spain,  and  taken  the  famous  city  Tarraco,  now 
Tarragona,  in  Catalonia.' 

This  desperate  state  of  aft'airs  was  in  some  measure  redressed  by 
ihe  happy  conduct  of  Claudius,  who,  in  less  than  two  years  time; 
routed  near  three  hundred  thousand  baibarians,  and  put  an  entire 
end  to  the  Gothic  war:  Nor  were  his  other  accomplishments  in- 
ferior to  his  valour;  an  elegant  historian'  having  found  in  him  the 
virtue  of  Trajan,  the  piety  of  Antonius,  and  tiie  moderation  of  Au- 


gustus. 


Quintilius  was,  in  all  respects,  comparable  to  his  brother  ;  wlioni 
he  succeeded,  not  on  account  of  his  relation,  but  his  merits.*     But 


«^  Pofupop.  Lxtus,  in  Ciordian, 

d  I  'om,  in  Decio. 

e  Idem,  in  Gallo 

f  ld»  ni  ibiil. 

*!  Idem,  in  Valeriano. 


'>  Tiebcll.  J'allio,  in  T)  ran. 

'  Idem,  in  G'dlieno. 

i  Kuii'op.  lib.  9. 

-^  Tr-  bell,  i'oilio,  in  ClaudJo. 

'  Ibid. 


48 


THE    RISE    AND    PROGRESS 


rei^-nino-  onlv  seventeen  days,  it  was  impossible  he  could  do  any 
lhin<'-  more  ihan  raise  an  expectation  in  the  world. 

If  anv  of  the  barbarians  were  left  within  the  bounds  of  the  empire 
by  Claudius,  Aurelian  entirely  clmsed  them  out.  In  one  single  war, 
he  is  reported  to  have  kiHed  a  thousand  of  the  Sarmalians  with  his 
own  hands."'  But  his  noblest  exploit  was,  the  conquering  the  fa- 
mous Zenobia,  Queen  of  the  east  (as  she  styled  herself)  and  the  tak- 
ing her  capital  city  Palmyra.  At  his  return  to  Rome  there  was 
scarce  any  nation  in  the  world,  out  of  which  he  had  not  a  sufticient 
number  of  captives  to  grace  his  triumph  :  the  most  considerable 
were  the  Indians,  Arabians,  Goths,  Franks,  Suevians,  Saracens, 
Vandals,  and  Germans." 

Tacitus  was  contented  to  shew  his  moderation  and  justice,  in  the 
quiet  management  of  the  empire,  without  any  hostile  design ;  or, 
had  lie  expressed  any  such  inclinations,  his  short  reign  must  neces- 
sarily have  hindered  their  etVect. 

Probus,  to  the  wise  government  of  his  preikHCssor,  added  the  va- 
lour and  conduct  of  a  good  commander:  It  was  he  that  obliged  the 
barbarous  nations  to  quit  all  their  footing  in  Gaul,  Illyricum,  and 
several  provinces  of  the  empire  ;  insomuch,  that  the  very  Parthians 
sent  him  Haltering  letters,  confessing  the  dismal  apprehensions  they 
entertained  of  his  designs  against  their  country,  and  beseeching 
him  to  favour  tliem  with  a  peace." 

There  was  scarce  any  enemy  left  to  his  successor  Cams,  except 
the  Persians ;  against  whom  he  accordingly  undertook  an  expedi- 
tion ;  but,  after  two  or  three  successful  engagements,  died  with  the 
stroke  of  a  thunderbolt.'' 

His  two  sons,  ('arinus  and  Numerian,  were  of  so  opposite  a  ge- 
nius, Ihat  one  is  generally  represented  as  the  worst,  the  other  as 
the  best  of  men.  Numerian  was  soon  treacherously  murdered  l)y 
Aper  ;  who,  together  with  tlie  other  emperor  Carinus,  in  a  very 
little  time,  gave  way  to  the  happy  fortune  of  Dioclesian,  the  most 
successful  of  the  latter  emperors ;  so  famous  for  his  prodigious  ex- 
ploits in  Egypt,  Persia,  and  Armenia,  tliat  a  Roman  author*  has 
not  stuck  to  compare  him  with  Jupiter,  as  he  docs  his  son  Maximi- 
nian  with  Hercules. 

Constantius  Chlorus  and  Galerius  were  happier  than  most  of  their 
predecessors,  by  dying,  as  they  had  for  the  most  part  lived,  in  peace. 

Nor  are  Severus  and  Maximilian  on  any  account  very  remarkable, 
except  for  leaving  so  admirable  a  successor  as  the  famous  Constan- 
tinc;  who,  ridding  himself  of  his  two  competitors,  Licinius  and  Max- 


»  Flavius  Vopisc.  in  Aureliano. 
.» Ibid.  '  Tdcm,  in  Probo. 


r  Idem,  in  Caro. 

1  Pomponius  Lxtus,  in  vita  ejus 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE. 


49 


entius,  advanced  the  empire  to  its  ancient  grandeur.  His  happy 
wars,  and  wise  administration  in  peace,  have  gained  him  the  sur- 
name ol  the  Great,  an  honour  unknown  to  former  emperors  :  Yet 
in  this  respect  he  is  justly  reputed  unfortunate,  that,  by  removing 
the  imperial  seat  from  Rome  to  Constantinople,  he  gave  occasion  to 
the  utter  ruin  of  Italy. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

OF  THE  ROMAN  AFFAIRS,  FROM  CGXSTANTINE  THE  GREAT  TO  THR 
TAKING  OF  ROME  BY  ODOACER,  AND  THE  RUIN  OF  THE  WEST- 
ERN   EMPIRE. 

THOUGH  the  three  sons  of  Constantine  at  first  divided  the  em- 
pire into  three  distinct  principalities;  yet  it  was  afterwards  re- 
united under  the  longest  survivor,  Constantius.  The  wars  between 
him  and  Magnentius,  as  they  proved  fatal  to  the  tyrant,  so  were 
they  extremely  prejudicial  to  the  whole  state;  which  at  this  time 
was  involved  in  such  unhappy  difficulties,  as  to  be  very  unable  to 
bear  so  excessive  a  loss  of  men,  no  less  than  54,000  being  killed  on 
both  sides.  And  perhaps  this  was  the  chief  reason  of  tlie  ill  suc- 
cess which  constantly  attended  that  emperor  in  the  eastern  wars  ; 
for  the  Persians  were  all  along  his  superiors  ;  and  when  at  last  a 
peace  was  concl  uded,  tlie  advantage  of  the  conditions  lay  on  their  side. 

Julian,  as  he  took  effectual  care  for  the  security  of  the  other 
bounds  of  the  empire,  so  his  designs  against  the  most  formidable 
enemies,  the  Persians,  had  all  appearance  of  success  ;  but  that  he 
lost  his  life  before  they  could  be  fully  put  in  execution. 

Jovian  was  no  sooner  elected  emperor,  but,  being  under  some 
apprehension  of  a  rival  in  the  west,  he  immediately  struck  up  a 
most  dishonourable  peace  with  the  Persians,  at  the  price  of  the  fa- 
mous city  Nisibis  and  all  Mesopotamia.  For  which  base  action,  as 
he  does  not  fail  of  an  invective  from  every  historian,  so  particularly 
Ammianus  Marcellinus"  and  Zosimus  have  taken  the  pains  to  show, 
that  he  was  the  first  Roman  governor  who  resigned  up  the  least 
part  of  their  dominions  upon  any  account. 

Valentinian  the  Frst  has  generally  the  character  of  an  excellent 
prince  :  but  he  seems  to  have  been  more  studious  of  obliging  his  sub- 


*  Pompon.  Lxtus. 


'  Lib.  25. 


iH™ 


I'h 


n 


:«'»Sf' W  f-lef^-m-  >■'■ 


50 


THE  RISE  ANTJ    PROORtib 


iects,  by  an  easy  an<l  <iuii't  govcrniiR-nl,  than  dcbirous  of  acting  any 
tliina:  iiiiainst  tlie  eiicroiicliing  enemies. 

Gnithin,  too,  tliou-li  a  piuiio  of  great  courage  and  experience  in 
war,  was  able  to  do  no  more  tlian  to  settle  the  single  province  ol 
Oaul  :   I5ut  he  is  extremely  applauded  by  historians  for  taking  sucli 
exiraordinary  care  in  the  business  of  a  successor;  for  being  very 
sensible  how  every  day  produced  worse  eflects  in  the  empire,  and 
that  the  slate,  if  not  at  the  last  gasp,  yet  was  very  nigh  beyond  all 
hopes  of  recovery,  he  ma.le  it  his  whole  study  to  find  out  a  person 
that  should,  in  ail  respects,  be  capac.Uted  for  the  noble  work  of 
the  deliverance  of  his  country.     The   man  he  pitched  upon  was 
Theodosius,  a  native  of  Spain;  who,  being  now  invested  with  the 
co.nman.l  of  the  east,  upon  the  death  of  Oratian  remained  sole  em- 
neror ;  and  indeed,  in  a  great  measure,  he  answered  the  expectation 
of  the  worl.l,  proving  the  most  resolute  defender  ol    the  empne  in 
its  declining  age.     Hut  for  hi<  colleague  Valentiman  the  Sec  .nd,lic 
was  cut  oB-  without  having  done  any  thing  that  deserves  our  notice. 
Under  Honorius,  things  returned  to  their  former  desperate  state, 
the  barbarous  nations  getting  sn.uuJ  «n  all  sides,  and  making  every 
d:n  some  iliminution  in  the  empire  ;  till,  at  last.  Alaric,  kingol  the 
Goths,  wasting  all  Italy,  proeee.le.l  to  Kon.e,  itself ;  and  being  con- 
tented  to  set  a  few  buildings  on  fire,  and  rifie  the  treasuries,  retired 
with  his  army;'  so  that  tins  is  rather  a  disgrace  than  a  destruction 
of  the  city.     And   Nero  is  supposed  to  have  done  more   m.schiel 
when  he  set  it  on  fire  in  jest,  than  it  now  suffered  from  the  barba- 
rous fonqueror.  . 

Valentinian  the  Third,  at  his  accession  to  the  empire,  gave  great 
hopes  of  his  proving  the  author  of  a  happy  revolution;"  ami  he  vvas 
very  fortunate  in  the  war  against  the  famous  Attila  the  iluii ;  but  Ins 
impudence,  in  putting  to  death  his  best  commander  ^tius,  hastened 
very  much  the  ruin  of  the  Roman  cause,  the  barbarous  nations  now 
rarryin-all  before  them,  without  any  considerable  opposition. 

By  this  time  the  state  was  given  over  as  deperate  ;  and  what 
minces  followed  till  the  taking  of  the  city  by  Odoacer,  were  only  a 
company  of  miserable,  short-lived  tyrants,  remarkable  lor  nothing 
but  the  meanness  of  their  extraction,  and  the  poorness  ot  their  go- 
vernment; so  that  historians  generally  pass  them  over  m  silence, 
or  at  most  with  the  bare  mention  of  their  names. 

The  best  account  of  them  we  can  meet  with,  is  as  follows :  Maxi- 
mus,  who,  in  onler  to  his  own  promotion,  had  procured  the  mm  der 
of  Valentinian,  soon  after  compelled  his  widow  Eudosia  to  accept  ul 


Pnul.  Diacon.  et  Pompon.  Ljet. 


"  PorDpon.  Lsct 


OF    THE    ROMAN    EMPIRE. 


51 


Jiim  as  a  husband;  wIumi  the  empress,  entertaining  a  mortal  hatred 
for  him  an  many  accounts,  sent  to  (ienseric,  a  famous  king  of  the 
Van(hiU,  and  a  confederate  of  the  late  emperor's,  desiring  his  assist- 
ance for  the  deliverance  of  herself  and  the  city  from  the  usurpation 
of  the  tyrant.  Genseric  easily  obeyed  ;  and,  hmdingu  ith  a  prodigiou.s 
army  in  Italy,  entered  Rome  without  any  opposition  ;  where,  contra- 
ry to  his  oath  and  promise,  he  seized  on  all  the  wealtli,  and  carried 
it,  with  several  thousands  of  the  inhabitants  into  Afric.^ 

Avitus,  the  general  in  Gaul,  was  the  next  that  took  upon  him  the 
name  of  emperor,  which  he  resigned  within  eight  months.^ 

Majorianus  succeeded  ;  and  after  three  years  left  the  honour  to 
Severus,  or  Severian  ;  who  iiad  the  happiness,  after  four  years  reign, 
to  die  a  natural  death.* 

After  him  Anthemius  was  elected  emperor,  who  lost  his  life  and 
dignity  in  a  rebellion  of  his  son-in-law  Ricimer.y  And  then  Olybrius 
was  sent  from  Constantinople  too,  with  the  same  authority,  but  died 
within  seven  months.' 

Liarius,  or  Glycerins,  who  had  been  elected  in  his  room  by  the 
soldiers,  was  immediately  almost  deposed  by  Nepos;  and  he  himself 
quickly  after  by  OriStcs;-  who  made  his  son  Augustus,  or  Augus- 
lulus,  emperor.  And  now  Odoacer,  king  of  the  Ileruli,  with  an  in- 
numerable multitude  of  the  barbarous  nations,  ravaging  all  Italy, 
approached  to  Home,  and  entering  the  city  without  any  resistance, 
and  deposing-  Aui^^ustulus,  secured  the  imperial  dignity  to  himself; 
and  Plough  he  was  forced  afterwards  to  give  place  to  Theodoiic  tlie 
Goth,  yet  the  Romans  had  never  after  the  least  command  in  Italv. 

"  Paul.  Discon.  et  Evat^rins  Ifist  Kcc'es  lib.  2.  cap.  7 
'''  l(i   'bid.  "  Paul.  D  scon,  lib  16.  y  Ibi-J 

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Fiihlirhr,!  hv  fluly,,,,,,  A  ll,,ti.,,>l     I i' I (1  „.,,•,, u/  .\hvfl . 


THE 


ANTIQUITIES 


OF 


ROME. 


PART  II.— BOOK  I. 


OF  THE   CITY. 


CHAPTER  I. 

OF    THE  POMffiRIUM,  AND  OF  THE    FORM    AND    BIGNESS  OF  THE    CITY, 

ACCORDING    TO    THE  SEVEN    HILLS. 

BEFORE  we  come  to  please  ourselves  with  a  particular  view  of 
the  city,  we  must,  by  all  means,  take  notice  of  the  Pomoerium,  for 
the  singularity  of  the  custom  to  which  it  owed  its  original.  Livy  de- 
fines the  Pom  cerium,  in  general,  to  be  that  space  of  ground,  both 
within  and  without  the  walls,  which  the  Augurs,  at  the  first  build- 
ing of  cities,  solemnly  consecrated,  and  on  which  no  edifices  were 
suffered  to  be  raised."  But  the  account  which  Plutarch  gives  us  of 
this  matter,  in  reference  to  Rome  itself,  is  sufficient  to  satisfy  our 
curiosity ;  and  is  delivered  by  him  to  this  purpose :  Romulus  having 
sent  for  some  of  the  Tuscans,  to  instruct  him  in  the  ceremonies  to 
be  observed  in  laying  the  foundations  of  his  new  city,  the  work  was 
be^un  in  this  manner: 

First,  they  dug  a  trench,  and  threw  into  it  the  first-fruits  of  all 
things,  either  good  by  custom,  or  necessary  by  nature;  and  every 
man  taking  a  small  turf  of  earth  of  the  country  from  whence  he 
came,  they  all  cast  them  in  promiscuously  together;  making  this 
trench  their  centre,  they  described  the  city  in  a  circle  round  it: 
Then  the  founder  fitted  to  a  plough  a  brazen  plough-share ;  and 
yoking  together  a  bull  and  a  cow,  drew  a  deep  line  or  furrow  round 
the  bounds  :  those  that  followed  after  taking  care  that  all  the  chnls 

.       •  =Llv,  Tib.  1 

0 


-spssr- 


I 


54 


OF  THE  Cll  V. 


fell  inwards  toward  the  city.  They  built  the  wall  upon  this  line, 
Nvliich  they  called  Pomocrium,  from  Pone  M(Fnia,'>  Tliough  the 
phrase  of  Pornarium  proferre  be  commonly  used  in  authors,  to  sig- 
lufy  the  enlar-ins  of  the  city ;  yet  it  is  certain  the  city  might  be  en- 
larged  without  that  ceremony.  For  Tacitus  and  Gollius  declare  no  per- 
son to  have  had  a  right  of  extending  the  Puma rium,  but  such  an  one 
as  had  taken  away  some  part  of  an  enemy's  country  in  war ;  where- 
as it  is  manifest,  that  several  great  men,  who  never  obtained  that 
hommr,  increased  the  buildings  with  considerable  additions. 

Ft  is  remarkable,  that  the  same  ceremony,  with  which  the  founda- 
tions of  their  cities  were  at  first  laid,  they  used  too  in  destroying  and 
razing  places  taken  from  the  enemy  ;  which  we  find  was  begun  by  the 
thief  "commander's  turning  up  some  of  the  walls  with  a  plough.<= 

\s  to  the  f(»rm  and  bigness  of  the  city,  we  must  follow  the  com- 
mon direction  of  the  seven  hills,  whence  came  the  phrase  of  Urb- 
HepticoUis,  and  the  like,  so  freciuent  with  the  poets. 

Of  these,  Mons  Pahitinus  has  ever  had  the  preference  ;  whether 
so  called  from  the  people  Palantes,  or  Palatini ;  or  from  the  bleating 
and  strolling  of  rattle,  in  Latin,  Balare,  and  Palare ;  or  from  Pales, 
the  pastoralVldess ;  or  from  the  burying-place  of  Pallas ;  we  find 
disputed,  and  undetermined  among  their  authors.  It  was  in  thi.. 
place  that  Romulus  laid  the  foundations  of  the  city,  in  a  quadran- 
gular form;  and  here  the  same  kin- and  Tullus  llostilius  kept  then- 
courts,  as  did  afterwards  Augustus,  and  all  the  succeeding  empe- 
rors;  on  which  account,  the  word  Palatium  came  to  signify  a  royal 

scat.'' 

This  hill  to  the  east  has  Mons  Ccclius ;  to  the  south,  Mons  Aven- 
linus;  to  the  west,  Mons  C'apitolinus;  to  the  north,  the  Forum.'" 

In  compass  twelve  hundied  paces.^ 

Mons  Tarpeius  took  its  name  from  Tarpeia,  a  Roman  virgin,  who 
betrayed  the  city  to  the  Sabines  in  this  place.^  It  was  called  too 
Mons  Saturni  and  Saturnius,  in  honour  of  Saturn,  who  is  reported 
to  have  lived  here  in  his  retirement,  and  was  ever  reputed  the  tute- 
lar  deity  of  this  part  of  the  city.  It  had  afterwards  the  denomina- 
tion of  Capitolinus,  from  the  head  of  a  man  casually  found  here  in 
digging  for  the  foundations  of  the  famous  temple  of  Jupiter,''  called 
CapitoTium,  for  the  same  reason.  This  hill  was  added  to  the  city 
by  Titus  Tatius,  kin-  of  the  Sabines,  when,  having  been  first  over- 
come in  the  field  bv  Romulus,  he  and  his  subjects  were  permitted  to 
incorporate  with  the  Romans.'  It  has  to  the  east  Mons  Palatmus  anu 

b  Ph.tarcl..  in  Uomul.  .  '  Marlian  Topograph.  Antiq.  Roir.x- 

»^  Dempster.  Paralit)om.  ad  Uosin.        lib.  1-  chap.  14. 
.   :   „i.„^.   <3  J?  Phitarch.  in 


lib.  i  cliap.  3. 

d  Rosin.  Antiq.  lib.  1.  chap,  4. 
«  Fabricii  Uoma,  chap.  3. 


g  Phitarch.  in  Romul. 
b  Liv.  lib.  1.  chap.  55. 
•  Uionysius. 


OF  THE  CITY. 


55 


liie  Forum ;  to  the  south,  the  Tiber ;  to  the  west,  the  level  part  of 
the  city ;  to  the  north,  Collis  Quirinalis. 

In  compass  seven  stadia  or  furlongs.*^ 

Collis  Quirinalis  was  so  called,  either  from  the  temple  of  Quirinus, 
another  name  of  Romulus ;  or  more  probably  from  tiie  Curetes,  peo- 
pie  that  removed  hither  with  Tatius  from  Cures,  a  Sabine  city.  It 
afterwards  changed  its  name  to  Caballus,  Mons  Caballi,  and  Caballi- 
nus,  from  the  two  marble  horses,  with  each  a  man  holding  him,  which 
are  set  up  here.  They  are  still  standing ;  and,  it  the  inscription  on 
the  pilasters  be  true,  were  the  work  of  Phidias  and  Praxiteles  ;'- 
made  by  those  famous  masters  to  represent  Alexander  the  Great, 
and  his  Bucephalus,  and  sent  to  Nero  for  a  present  by  Tiridate^ 
king  of  Armenia.     This  hill  was  added  to  the  city  by  Numa.'' 

To  the  east,  it  has  Mons  Esquilinus  and  Mons  Viminalis  ;  to  the 
south,  the  forums  of  C^sar  and  Nerva ;  to  the  west,  the  level  part 
of  the  city;  to  the  north,  Collis  Hortulorum,  and  the  Campus  Mar- 

tius." 

In  compass  almost  three  miles." 

Mons  Coelius  owes  its  name  to  Coelius  or  Coeles,  a  famous  Tuscan 
-eneral  who  pitched  his  tents  here,  when  he  camAo  the  assistance 
of  Romulus  against  the  Sabines.  Livy  and  Dionysius^  attribute 
the  taking  of  it  in  to  Tullus  Hostilius ;  but  Strabot  to  Ancus  Mar- 
tins. The  other  names  by  which  it  was  sometimes  known,  were 
Queixulanus,  or  Quercetulanus,  and  Augustus  :  the  first  occasioned 
by  the  abundance  of  oaks  growing  there  ;  the  other  imposed  by  the 
emperor  Tiberius,  when  he  had  raised  new  buildings  upon  it  after 

"^  One  part  of  this  hill  was  called  Coeliolus,  and  Minor  Coelius.^ 

To  the  east,  it  has  the  city-walls ;  to  the  south,  Mons  Aventinus ; 
to  the  west,  Mons  Palatinus  ;  to  the  north,  Mons  Esquilinus.- 
In  compass  about  two  miles  and  a  half.'^  _ 

Mons  Esquilinus  was  anciently  called  Cispius  and  Oppius.^  The 
name  of  Esquilinus  was  varied  for  the  easier  pronunciation,  from 
Exquilinus,  a  corruption  of  Excubinus,  ab  excubiis,  from  the  watch 
that  Romulus  kept  here.^  It  was  taken  in  by  Servius  Tullius  '^  who 
had  here  his  royal  seat.^     Varro  will  have  the  Esquiliae  to  be  pro- 


i  Fabricii  Roma,  chap.  3. 
«<  Marlian,  lib.  1.  chap.  1. 
i  Sext.  Pomp.  Festus. 
'"  Fabricii  Roma,  chap.  3. 
n  Dionys.  Halic.  lib.  2. 
<>  Fabricii  Roma,  chap.  3. 
•1  Marhan   lib.  1.  chap.  1. 
1  Varro  de  Ling.  Lat.  lib.  4. 
'^  Lib.  1.  chap.  30. 


s  Lib.  3. 

*  Georgr.  lib  5. 

u  Tacit.  Ann.  4.  Suet,  in  Tib.  chap.  4B- 

V  Fabricii  Roma,  chap.  3.  ^^  Ibid. 

X  Marlian.  lib.  1.  chap.  1. 

y  Fubricii  Roma,  chap.  3. 

I  Propert.  lib.  2.  Eleg.  8. 

a  Liv.  hb.  1.  chap.  44. 

b  Ibid. 


■f 


i  i 


^iSsm 


5b 


OF    THE    CITY. 


porly  two  uiountams  ;<^  which  opinion  has  been  since  approved  of 
bv  a  curious  observer.'  ,-    ,    ,. 

'  To  the  east,  it  has  the  city-walls ;  to  the  soutli,  tlie  V  la  Labicana ; 
to  tlie  west,  the  valley  lyin-  between  Mons  Ccelius  and  Mons  Pa- 
latinus  ;  to  the  north,  Collis  Viminalis.*- 

In  compass  about  four  miles.'' 

Mons  Viminalis  derives  its  name  a  viminibi(.i,  from  the  osiers  thai 
grew  there  in  great  plenty.     This  hill  was   taken  in  by  Servius 

Tullius.' 

To  the  east,  it  has  the  Campus  Esquinalis ;  and  to  the  south, 
part  of  the  Suburra  and  the  Forum  ;  to  the  west,  Mons  Quirinalis  ; 
to  the  north,  the  Vallis  Quirinalis." 

In  compass  two  miles  and  a  half.' 

The  name  of  Mons  Aventinus  has  given  great  cause  of  dispute 
among  the  critics,  some  deriving  the  word  from  Avcnliiiusan  Alban 
king  v-  some  from  the  river  Avens  ;^  and  others  ab  avibus,  from  the 
birds  which  used  to  fly  hither  in  great  flocks  from  the  Tiber.'  It  was 
called  too  Murcius,  from  Murcia,  the  goddess  of  sleep,  who  had  here 
a  sacellum,  or  little  temple :"'  Collis  Diannc,  from  the  temple  of  Dia- 
na :"  and  Remonius,  from  Remus,  who  would  have  had  the  city  begun 
in  this  place,  and  was  here  buried."  A.  (iellius  aftirms,''  that  this 
hill,  being  all  along  reputed  sacred,  was  never  inclosed  within  the 
bounds  of  the  city  till  the  time  of  Claudius.  But  Eutropiusn  expressly 
attributes  the  taking  of  it  in  to  Aneus  Martins ;  and  an  old  epigram  in- 
serted byCuspinian,  in  his  commenton  Cassidorus,confirms  the  same. 

To  the  east,  it  has  the  city-walls;  to  the  south,  the  Campus  Figu- 
liniis;  to  the  west,  the  Tiber;  to  the  north,  Mons  Palatinus.-^ 

In  circuit  eighteen  stadia,  or  two  miles  and  a  quarter.* 

Besides  these  seven  principal  hills,  three  others  of  inferior  note 
were  taken  in  in  later  times. 

Collis  Ilortulorum,  or  Hortorum,  had  its  name  from  the  famous 
o^rdens  of  Sallust  adjoining  to  it.'  It  was  afterwards  called  Pincius 
from  the  Pincii,  a  noble  family  who  had  here  their  seat."  The  em- 
peror Aurelian  first  inclosed  it  within  the  city -walls. ^ 

To  the  east  and  south  it  has  the  plainest  part  of  Mons  Quirinalis ; 
to  the  west  the  Vallis  Martia ;  to  the  north  the  walls  of  the  city.^'^ 

In  compass  about  eighteen  stadia.'^ 


'  De  Ling.  Laiir.  lib.  4. 
'•  Marlian.  lib.  1.  chap.  1. 
«  Tiibncii  Romu,  chap.  3. 
*  M;«rhan   lib.  1.  chap.  1. 
3  l)iOH}  s.  lib.  4. 
J'  J'abricii  Itoma,  chap.  3. 
»  Murliuii.  lib.  1.  chap.  1. 


n  Martial. 
p  Lib.  13.  cliap.  11. 
*!  Lib.  1. 

'  Fabricii  Roma,  chap.  3. 
s   Marlian.  lib.  1.  chap.  1. 
f   Rosin    lib.  1.  chap.  11. 
Ibid. 


"  riut.  in  Ronml, 


Ibid. 


j  VHrro  de  Lu;^^.  Lat.  1.  4.         ^  ib.     ^  Fabricii  Roma,  chap.  3. 
I  lb.  '"  Scxt.  I'omp.  Festus.        »  Marlian.  lib.  1 .  chap.  1. 


OF    THE    CITY. 


57 


Janlculum, or  Janicularis,  was  so  called,  either  from  an  old  town  of 
the  same  name,  said  to  have  been  built  bv  Janus;  or  because  Janus 
dwelt  and  was  buried  here;  or  because  it  was  janua,  Si  sort  of 
gate  to  the  Romans,  whence  they  issued  out  upon  the  Tuscans.* 
The  sparkling  sands  have  at  present  given  it  the  name  of  Mons 
Aureus,  and,  by  corruption,  Montorius.**  We  may  make  two  ob- 
servations about  this  hill,  from  an  epigram  of  Martial;  that  it  is 
the  fittest  place  to  take  one's  standing  for  a  full  prospect  of  the 
city  ;  and  that  it  is  less  inhabited  than  the  other  parts,  by  reason  of 
the  grossness  of  the  air."  It  is  still  famous  for  the  sepulchres  of 
Numa,  and  Statius  the  poet.*^ 

To  the  east  and  south  it  has  the  Tiber;  to  the  west  the  fields;  to 
the  north  the  Vatican.' 

In  circuit  (as  much  of  it  as  stands  within  the  city-walls),  five 
stadia.*" 

Mons  Viticanus  owes  its  name  to  the  answers  of  the  Vates  or  pro- 
phets, that  used  to  be  given  here ;  or  from  the  god  Vaticanus  or  Va- 
gitanus.  It  seems  not  to  have  been  inclosed  within  the  walls  until 
the  time  of  Aurelian. 

This  hill  was  formerly  famous  for  the  sepulchre  of  Scipio  Africa- 
nus,  some  remains  of  which  are  still  to  be  seen.*^  But  it  is  more 
celebrated  at  present  on  account  of  St.  Peter's  church,  the  Pope's 
palace,  and  the  noblest  library  in  the  world. 

To  the  east  it  has  the  Campus  Vaticanus,  and  the  river;  to  the 
south  the  Janiculum;  to  the  west  the  Campus  Figulinus,  or  Potter's 
Field  ;  to  the  north  the  Prata  Quintia.'' 

It  lies  in  the  shape  of  a  bow  drawn  up  very  high;  the  convex 
j)art  stretching  almost  a  mile.' 

As  to  the  extent  of  the  whole  city,  the  greatest  we  meet  with  in 
history  was  in  the  reign  of  Valerian,  who  enlarged  the  walls  to  such 
a  degree  as  to  surround  the  space  of  fifty  miles.j 

The  number  of  inhabitants,  in  its  flourishing  state,  Lipsius  com- 
putes at  four  millions.'^ 

At  present  the  compass  of  the  city  is  not  above  thirteen  miles. 

y  Uosin.  lib.  1.  chap.  11.    ^  Festus.    ^  Warcup's  Hist,  of  Italy,  Book.  11. 


^  Fabricii  Ronia,  ciiap.  3. 
«»  Martial.  Epig.  lib,  4.  Ep  G4. 
-  Fabricii  Roma,  lib.  1.  chap.  3. 
''  ibid.        i  Marlian.  lib.  1.  chap,  1. 
*    festus. 


h  Fabricii  Roma,  chap.  3. 
'    Marlian.  lib.  1.  chap.  1. 
i    Vopisc.  in  Aureliano. 
^  De  Magnitud.  Rom. 
^   I'abricii  Homa,  chap.  2. 


..  I 


'   i 


Hl^l 


■-.;,i^1SSW«Kti;i™ 


56 


Of    THE    CITY 


CHAPTER  II. 

OF    THE    DIVISION    OF    THE    CITY    INTO    THTRES    AND    REGIONS  J    AT?D 

OF    THE    GATES    AND    BRIDGES. 

ROMULUS  divided  his  little  city  into  three  tribes;  and  Servius 
Tullius  added  a  fourth:  which  division  continued  until  the  tune  oi 
Augustus.  It  was  he  that  first  appointed  the  fourteen  Regions  or 
Wards  :  An  account  of  which,  with  the  number  of  temples,  baths, 
^•c.in  every  region,  may  be  thus  taken  from  the  accurate  Panvinm^. 


Region  I.     Porta  Capena. 


Streets  9. 
liuci  3. 
Temples  4. 
yf^des  6 . 
Public  baths  6. 


Arches  4. 
Hams  14. 
Mills  12. 
Great  houses  \2\ 


The  whole  compass  13,223  feet. 

Region  II.     CcElimontium. 
Streets  12.  The  great  Shambles. 

lAici  2.  ^'*!','^^^.^' 

Ten.nles  5.  Mills  2o. 

Tlie  public  baths  of  the  city  Great  houses  io^. 

Private  baths  80.  .^onnr    . 

The  compass  l.),200  feet. 

Region  III.     Ms  and  Seraph'. 
c;treets  8  The  amphitheatre  of  Vespabiai;. 

Temples  2.  ,     Harns  29,  or  19. 

The  baths  of  Titus,  Trajan,  and    Mills  2o. 

jpjjilip  Great  houses  100. 

The  compass  12,450  feet. 

Kegion  IV.     Via  Sacra,  or  Teniplwn  Fads. 

g^j.gg^5  8  Tl.e  Colossus  of  the  Sun,  120  feet  h.gh 

Temples' 10.  tV^^l^' 

The  arches  of  Titus  Severus,       Mills  24. 
and  Constantine.  Great  houses  lo8. 

Private  baths  75.  ,     o/^/^^K  r    . 

The  compass  14,000  ;  as  some  say,  only  8000  feet 


Streets  15. 
Luci  8. 
Temples  6. 
-Edcs  5. 


Region  V.     Esqmlina. 

Private  baths  75. 
Barns  18. 
Mills  22. 

Great  houses  180, 
The  compass  15,950  feet. 


OF    THE    CITY. 


Region  VI.     Acta  S emit  a. 


Streets  12,  or  13. 
Temples  15. 
Porticos  2. 
Circi  2. 
i'ora  2. 


Streets  40. 
Temples  1. 
Priv:<li  baths  75. 
Arches  3. 


Priv.ite  baths  75. 
IJarns  19. 
Mills  23. 
i-ircat  houses  155 

The  compass  15,600  feet. 

Region  VII.      Via  Lata, 

Burns  25. 

Mills  17. 

Great  houses  120. 

The  compass  23,700  feet. 


Region  VIII.     Forum  Romaaum. 


streets  12. 
Temples  21. 
Private  baths  (^6, 
-I'.d.  s  10. 
1*01. 1  cos  9. 
Arches  4. 
Pora  7. 


Curiae  4. 
Basilicse  7. 
Columns  6. 
Barns  18. 
Mills  30. 
Great  houses  150. 


The  compass  14,867  feet. 


Streets  20. 
Temples  8. 
.I'Ales  20. 
Porticos  12. 
Circi  2. 
Theatres  4. 
Basilica;  3. 


Streets  7. 
Temples  10. 
.'Edes9. 
'I'heatre  1. 
Curix  4. 


Region  IX.     Circus  Flaminiufi. 

Curix  2. 
Thermae  5. 
Archts  2. 
Columns  2. 
Barns  32. 
Mills  32. 

(«reat  houses  189. 
The  compass  30,560  feet. 

Region  X.     Faiuiium. 

Private  baths  15. 
Barns  16. 
Mills  12. 
Great  houses  109. 

The  compass  11,600  feet. 
Region  XI.     Circus  Maxima!^. 


Streets  8. 
.Edes  22. 
I*rivate  baths  15. 


Barns  16. 
Mills  12. 

Great  houses  1S9. 
'I'he  compass  11,600  feet. 


Region  XIL     Piscina  Publica. 


Streets  12. 
iEdes2. 
Private  baths  68. 


Streets  17. 


Barns  28. 
Mill-s  25. 

Great  houses  128. 
The  compass  12,000  feet. 

Region  XIII.     Aventinus. 
Luci  6. 


50 


H        0  ■ 


60 


Temples  0. 
Fi-ivatc  Huths  M 
Uariis  36. 


Of    THE    CliV. 

Mills  30. 

Great  liouses  Ij6. 

The  compass  16,300  feet. 


Region  XIV.     Tramtibcrina. 


Streets  23. 

^Kles  6. 

Private  baths  136 


Hams  20. 
Mills  32. 

Great  nouses  150. 
The  compass  33,409  Feet. 


As  lo  the  giitcs,  Romulus  built  only  three,  or  (as  some  will  hav» 
Li)  four  at  most.     But,  as  buildm-s  were  enlarged,  the  gates  were 
accordingly  multiplied  ;  so  that  Pliny  tells  us,  there  were  thirty- 
four  in  his  time. 

The  most  remarkable  were, 

Porta  Flumentana,  so  called,  because  it  stood  near  the  river. 

Porta  Flaminia,  owing  its  name  to  the  Flaminian  Way,  wliich 

begins  there. 

Porta  Carmentalis,  built  by  Romulus,  and  so  called  from  Car- 

menta  the  [)roi)hetess,  mother  of  Evander. 

Porta  Naivia,  which  Varro  derives  h  ncmoribus,  from  the  wood- 
whicli  formerly  stood  near  it. 

Porta  Saliana,  deriving  its  name  from  the  salt  which  the  Sabine> 
u-,ed  to  bring  in  at  that  gate  from  the  sea,  to  supply  the  city. 

Porta  t^apena,  called  so  from  Capua,  an  old  city  of  Italy,  to  which 
the  way  lay  through  this  gate.  It  is  sometimes  called  Appia,  from 
Appius  the  censor;  and  Triumphalis,  from  the  triumphs,  in  which 
the  procession  commonly  passed  under  here  :  and  Fontinalis,  from 
the  \ipixducts  which  were  raised  over  it ;  whence  Juvenal  calls  it 
IMadida  Capcna;  and   Martial,  Capcna.  grandi  Porta  qwe  pluit 


gutta. 


The  Tiber  was  passed  over  by  eight  bridges ;  the  names  of  which 
are  thus  set  down  by  Marlian  :  Milvius,  iElius,  Vaticanus,  Janici. 
lensis,  Cestius,  Fabricius,  Palatinus,  and  Sublicius. 


Of  ruE  PI 


CHAPTER  III. 

.ivcEs  OF  worship;  particularly  of  the  temples  ANt 

LUC  I. 


BEFORE  we  proceed  to  take  a  view  of  the  most  remarkable 
places  set  apart  for  the  celebration  of  divine  service,  it  maybe  pro- 
per  to  make  a  short  observation  about  the  general  names,  under 
ivhich  we  meet  with  them  in  authors. 


>  •  •  •  < 


I  * 


,  t » 


•  , 


« 


•  ♦  ( 


C  A!Pinr©iL.ii'r>fl 


,.:..;:' Tv 


nrjiMPL. 


PAiVTimXOK    VlTIL'GD  KOTriTTJ.vN 


/i,/./,.r/u./  hvHn^'uu,   ^Ha.zn,.!    U'l ,1,^m,t  SlM'^^Z* 


♦  .»     »  .  • 


•      t 


•»,    ,       •    I      1   r'   ) 
•     .     ,,  •     t    •» 


t    I       t   > 
•    »  -  '    •     » 


»       •   <  I- 


•  •        •  .•     •• 


•  till*      •  • 


•  *   •      •    • 


i.iii^i.tj>^t:ii-a.|ni; 

I I     ii'iiiiii  liiiiiiiiiiijiiiiiiiiiii  iiiillllMiiili iiliMiiliiiiillili »  iinil»»i«i»iti«««iiil»lM<i«ili«tlilllll>llillii 


li'ihliia^i'iriKlfjyiJ    i'uKtv   KiLail  IBi\X.!l&A    C*A  ID)  HIT  AST  a 


iN\M  iPlHI  II  IT  iil  IB. Air  iK  U  ivn     T IL.  AITIID  HI . 


hihliyhrtJ  /a  HiA^n.in  ,{H.4 :t.,r,l  /^J (7,^.i,ut  .SfJfH'^ 


OF    THE    CITY. 


61 


Templum  then  was  a  place  which  had  not  been  only  dedicated  to 
some  deity,  but  withal  formerly  consecrated  by  the  Augurs. 

^'Edes  Sacne,  were  such  as  wanted  that  consecration ;  which  if 
they  afterwards  received,  they  changed  their  names  to  temples. 
Vide*  Agell.  L.  XIV.  c.  T. 

Dcliibrurii,  according  to  Servius,  was  a  place  that,  under  one  roof, 
comprehended  several  deities. 

JEdicuUi  is  onlv  a  diminutive,  and  siii;nifies  no  more  than  a  little 
*^des. 

Sacellum  mav  be  derived  the  same  way  from  ^^Edes  Sacrae,  Festus 
tells  us  it  is  a  place  sacred  to  the  gods  without  a  roof. 

It  were  endless  to  reckon  up  but  the  bare  names  of  all  the  tem- 
ples we  meet  with  in  authors.  The  most  celebrated  on  all  accounts 
were  the  Capitol  and  the  Pantheon. 

The  Capitol,  or  temple  of  Jupiter  Capitolinus,  was  the  effect  of  a 
vow  made  by  Tarquinius  Priscus  in  the  Sabine  war."'     But  he  had 
scarce  laid  the  foundations  before  his  death.     His  nephew,  Tarquin 
the  Proud,  finished  it  with  the   spoils  taken  from  the  neighbouring 
nations."  But,  upon  the  expulsion  of  the  kings,  the  consecration  was 
performed  by  Horatius  the  consul.'     The  structure  stood  on  a  high 
ridge,  taking  in  four  acres  of  ground.     Tiie  front  was  adonu  d  with 
three  rows  of  pillars,  the  other  sides  with  two.^'  The  ascent  from  the 
ground  was  by  a  hundred  steps.'     The  prodigious  gifts  and  orna- 
ments, with  which  it  was  at  several  times  endowed,  almost  exceed 
belief.     Suetonius'  tells   us,  that  Augustus  gave  at  one  time  two 
thousand  pounds  weight  of  gold;  and  in  jewels  and  precious  stones, 
to  the  value  of  five  hundred  sestertia.     Livy  and  Pliny  surprise  us 
with  accounts  of  the  brazen  thresholds,  the  noble  pillars  that  Sylla 
removed  hither  from  Athens  out  of  the  temple  of  Jupiter  Olympius  ; 
the  gilded  roof,  the  gilded  shields,  and  those  of  solid  silver ;  the  huge 
vessels  of  silver,  holding  three  measures ;  the  golden  chariot,  ^c. 
This  temple  was  first  consumed  by  fire  in  the  Marian  war,  and  then 
rebuilt  by  Sylla  ;  who,  dying  before  the  dedication,  left  that  honour 
to  Quintus  Catulus.     This  too  was  demolished  in  the  Viteliian  sedi- 
tion.    Vespasian  undertook  a  third,  which  was  burnt  about  the  time 
of  his  death.     Domitian  raised  the  last  and  most  glorious  of  all ;  in 
which  the  very  gilding  amounted  to  twelve  thousand  talents.      On 
which  account  Plutarch'  has  observed  of  that  emperor,  that  he  was, 
nke  Midas,  desirous  of  turning  every  thing  into  gold.     There  are 


"Liv.  lib.  1.  n  ibij. 

•  Plutarch,  in  Popllcola. 

^  Dionys.  Halicw.  S  Tacitus. 

10 


"f  In  .August,  chap.  30 

*   L.v    hb.  55.  o8.     Plin.  lib.  33,  See. 

«  Plutarcb-  in  Pop'.icola.  -^  Ibid. 


62 


OF  THK  cirr. 


OF    THE    CITY. 


63 


very  little  remains  of  it  at  present;  yet  enough  to  make  a  Christiaii 

church.' 

The  Pantheon  was  built  by  Marcus  A<j;rippa, son-in-law  to  Auj;u>- 
tus  Cxsar;  and  dedicated  either  to  Jupiter  Ultor,  or  to  Mars  and 
Venus,  or  more  ])rubably,  to  all  the  gods  in  general,  as  the  very  name 
[f/uasi  Tav  rrtarui  0ea»)  implies.  The  structure,  according  to  Fa 
bricius,  •  is  an  hundred  and  forty  feet  liigh,  and  about  the  same 
breadth,  l^ut  a  later  author  has  increase<l  the  number  of  feet  to  a 
hundred  and  fifty-eight.  The  roof  is  curiously  vaulted,  void  places 
being  left  here  and  there  for  the  greater  strength.  The  rafters  were, 
pieces  of  brass  of  forty  feet  in  length.  There  are  no  windows  in  the 
whob^  edifice,  only  a  round  hole  at  the  top  of  the  ro(d',  which  serves 
verv  well  for  tlie  admission  of  the  light.  Diametrically  under  is  cut 
a  curious  gutter  to  receive  the  rain.  The  walls  on  the  mside  are 
either  solid  marble,  or  incrusted.^  The  front  on  the  outside  was 
covered  with  bra/.en  plates  gilt,  the  top  with  silver  plates,  which  are 
now  V hanged  to  lead.  The  gates  were  brass,  of  extraordinary 
work  and  bigness.' 

This  temple  is  still  standing  with  little  alteration,  besides  the 
loss  (d  the  old  (unaments,  being  converted  into  a  Christian  church 
by  pope  lioniface  111.  (or,  as  Polydore  Virgil  has  it,  by  Boniface 
IV.)  dedicated  to  St.  Mary  and  All  saints,  though  the  general  name 
be  St.  Maryde  Rotonda,  The  most  remarkable  dift'erence  is,  that, 
whereas  heretofore  they  ascended  by  twelve  steps,  they  now  go 
down  as  many  to  the  entrance. 

The  ceremony  of  tlie  consecration  of  temples  (a  piece  of  super- 
stition very  well  worth  our  notice)  we  cannot  better  apprehend,  than 
by  the  following  account  which  Tacitus  gives  us  of  that  solemnity 
in  reference  to  the  Capitol,  when  repaired  by  Vespasian;  though 
perhaps  the  chief  rites  were  celebrated  upon  the  entire  raising  of 
the  structure,  this  being  probably  intended  only  for  the  hallowing 

the  floor. 

Umlecimn  Kalendas  Julias,'*  Sfc.  '*Upon  the  21st  of  July,  being 
a  very  clear  day,  the  whcde  plot  of  ground  designed  for  the  temple 
was  bound  about  with  lillets  and  garlands.  Such  of  the  soldiers  as 
had  lucky  names,  entered  first  with  boughs  in  their  hands,  taken 
from  those  trees  which  the  gods  more  especially  delighted  in.  Next 
came  the  vestal  virgins,  with  boys  and  girls  whose  fathers  and 
mothers  were   living,  and  sprinkled  the  place  with  brook-water. 


"  Fabricii  Uomr*,  chap.  9,  ^^'Ib'ul. 

^   Murlian.    Topograpli.   Jiom.  Antiq. 
lib.  (>.  chap.  (). 

y  Ibid,  8vC.  Fabric,  llonja.  cliap.  9. 


^  Marlian.  Ibid. 
•'  Lib.  6.  chap.  8. 
^  Fabric,  chap.  9. 
J  llistor.  hb.  'i. 


lb:d 


river-water,  and  spring-water.  Then  lielvidius  Priscus  the  Praetor, 
(Plautus  iFJian,  one  of  the  chief  priests,  going  before  him),  after  he 
had  performed  the  solemn  sacrifice  of  a  swine,  a  sheep,  and  a  bul- 
lock, for  the  purgation  of  the  floor,  and  laid  the  entrails  upon  a  green 
turf;  humbly  besought  Jupiter,  Juno,  Minerva,  and  the  other  deities 
protectors  of  the  empire,  that  they  would  be  pleased  to  prosper  their 
present  undertakins^,  and  accomplish,  by  their  di\ine  assistance, 
what  human  piety  had  thus  begun.  Having  concluded  this  prayer, 
he  ])ut  his  hand  to  the  fillets,  to  which  the  ropes,  with  a  great  stone 
fastened  in  tliem,  had  been  tied  for  this  occasion;  when  immediately 
the  whole  company  of  priests,  senators,  and  knights,  with  the  greatest 
part  of  the  common  people,  laying  hold  together  on  the  rope,  with 
all  the  expressions  of  joy,  drew  the  stone  into  the  trench  designed 
for  the  foundation,  throwing  in  wedges  of  gold,  silver,  and  other 
metals  Mhich  had  never  endured  the  fire." 

Some  curious  persons  have  observed  this  similitude  between  the 
>hape  of  these  old  temples  and  our  modern  churches;  that  they  had 
<me  apartment  more  holy  than  the  rest,  which  they  termed  Cella, 
answering  to  our  chancel  or  choir;  that  the  porticos  in  the  sides 
were  in  all  respects  like  to  our  isles;  and  that  our  nave,  or  body  of 
the  church,  is  an  imitation  of  their  basilica.^ 

There  are  two  other  temples  particularly  worth  our  notice  ;  not  so 
much  for  the  magnificence  of  the  structure,  as  for  the  customs  that 
depend  upon  them,  and  the  remarkable  use  to  which  they  were  put. 
These  are  the  temples  of  Saturn  and  Janus. 

The  first  was  famous  upon  account  of  serving  for  the  public  trea- 
sury ;  the  reason  of  which  same  fancy  to  have  been,  because  Saturn 
first  taught  the  Italians  to  coin  money  ;  or,  as  Plutarch  conjectures, 
because,  in  the  golden  age  under  Saturn,  all  persons  were  honest  and 
sincere,  and  the  names  of  fraud  and  covetousness  unknown  to  the 
world.*'  But,  perhaps,  there  might  be  no  more  in  it,  than  that  this 
temple  was  one  of  the  strongest  places  in  the  city,  and  so  the  fittest 
for  that  use.  Here  were  preserved  all  the  public  registers  and  re- 
cords, among  which  were  the  Libri  Elephantini,  orgreat  ivory  tables, 
containing  a  list  of  all  the  Tribes,  and  the  schemes  of  the  public 
accounts. 

The  other  was  a  square  piece  of  building,  (some  say  of  entire  brass) 
so  laige  as  to  contain  a  statue  of  Janus  five  feet  high ;  w ith  brazen 
gates  on  each  side,  which  used  always  to  be  kept  open  in  war,  and 
shut  in  time  of  peace.* 

«  Polletus  Hist.  Roman.  Flori,  lib.  1.        "  Marlim.  Topog.  Rom,  Antiq.  lib.  6 
^hap.  v3.  *  Flutaich.  in  Problem,     chap.  S. 


it: 


b4 


Of  THE  criy. 


OF    THE    CITY. 


65 


But  the  Itoinaiis  were  so  continually  enguf^ed  in  quarrels,  that  wc 
find  (he  last  custom  hut  seldom  put  in  jiractice. 

First,  all  the  long  reign  of  Numa.  Secondly,  A.  U.  C.  519.  upim 
the  conclusion  of  the  tirst  Punic  war.  Thirdly,  by  Augustus,  A. 
U.  C.  T^S;  and  twice  more  by  the  same  emperor,  A.  U.  C.  7!29. ; 
and  again  about  the  time  of  our  Saviour's  birth.  Then  by  Nero,  A. 
U.  C.  811.  Afterwards  by  Vespasian,  A.  U.  C.  HiI4.  ;  and  lastly 
by  Constantius,  when,  upon  Magnentius's  death,  he  was  let!  sole 
possessor  of  the  empire,  A.  V.  C.  1105.'' 

Of  this  custom,  Virgil  gives  us  a  noble  description ; 

Sunt gemiiui  belli  peit.r,  sic  nomine  dicunty 
Jieligiont  scirr.i ,  et  S"  I'i  Jonnidmc  ^Mw  tis  : 
Ceutum  arti  clautiiint  vertfs  utonaqiir  ftrri 
Robora  :  nee  cujitos  ohsistit  limine  J'liius 
Has   uh:  ceita  ttdet  putriltus  scntentia  pugndr  i 
Jp-nf    Quiriiuili  trnhrti  tin,  tuyue  iictbiitO 
Insmnis   rcaeral  stridentia  limiua  consul ; 
fpie  vocut  pui^nuis.* 

Sucred  lo  Mars  two  stately  j^ates  appear. 

Made  auiul  by  the  <lread  of  arms  and  war  ; 

An  htnulied  brazen  bolts  from  inipioiis  power  "^ 

A;id  everlusiitijL;  l).»rs  lite  dome  secure,  > 

And  watchful  Janus  pnaixls  bis  tem|)le  door.  j 

Here  wben  the  fathers  have  ordained  to  try 

The  cUanee  of"  battle  by  liu'ir  fix'd  decree, 

I'he  consul,  rich  i»i  his  (ialbinian  g-own 

And  repal  jiall,  leails  ihe  procession  on ; 

The  sounchng-  hint,es  g:';<M  ly  turnabout, 

Kou'-e  the  imprison'd  t;od,  and  let  the  fiirics  f)u'. 

Near  the  temple  of  Janus  there  was  a  street  wliich  took  the  same 
name,  inhabited  for  the  most  part  by  bankers  and  usurers.     It  was 
very  long,  and  divided  by  the  difteront  names  of  Janus  Summus,  Ja- 
nus Medius,  and  Janus  Imns.    The  first  and  the  last  of  these  parli 
tions  are  mentioned  by  Horace,  lib.  1.  epist.  1. 

//oc  Janus  sunvnus  nb  imo  pcrdocrt. 

The  other,  Tully  speaks  of  in  several  places  of  his  works.* 
The  superstition  of  consecrating  groves  and  woods  to  the  honour 
of  the  deities,  was  a  practice  very  usual  v.ith  the  ancients:  For, not 
to  speak  of  those  mentioned  in  the  holy  scripture,  Pliny  assures  us, 
that  "trees  in  the  old  time  served  for  the  temples  of  the  Gods.'* 
Tacitus  reports  this  custom  of  the  old  Germans  ;  Q.  Curtius  of  the 
Indians,  and  almost  all  writers  of  the  old  Druids.  The  Romans,  too, 
were  great  admirers  of  this  way  of  worship,  and  therefore  had  thei» 
Lttci  in  most  parts  of  the  city,  generally  dedicated  to  some  particu- 
lar deity. 

The  most  probable  reason  that  can  be  given  for  this  practice,  is 
taken  from  the  common  opinion,  that  fear  was  the  main  principle  of 

**  C  tsaubon.  Not.  a  J  Sueton.  August.      '  Virg.  iEn.  7.  607. 
chap.  22.  )  Lib.  2.  do  Offic.  I'hilip.  8.  Lc. 


devotion  among  the  ignorant  heathens.  And  therefore  such  dark- 
some and  lonely  seats,  putting  them  into  a  sudden  horror  and  dread, 
made  them  fancy  that  there  must  necessarily  something  of  divinity 
inliabit  there,  which  could  produce  in  them  such  an  awe  and  reve- 
rence at  their  entrance. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

OF    THE    THEATRES,    AMPHITHEATRES,    CIRCI,    NAUMAOHKT:,    ODEA. 
STADIA,    AND    XYSTI,    AND    OF    THE    CAMPUS    MARTIUS. 

THEATRES,  so  called  from  the  Greek  ^tac^o*,  fo  see,  owe  their 
original  to  Bacchus.-  They  were  usual  in  several  parts  of  Greece : 
and  at  last,  after  the  same  manner  as  other  institutions,  were  bor- 
rowed thence  by  the  Romans.  That  the  theatre  and  amphitheatre 
were  two  dift'erent  sorts  of  edifices,  was  never  questioned,  the  form- 
er being  built  in  the  shape  of  a  semicircle,  the  other  generally  oval, 
so  as  to  make  the  same  figure  as  if  two  theatres  should  be  joined 
together;  yet  the  same  place  is  often  called  by  these  names  in  se- 
veral authors.  They  seem,  too,  to  have  been  designed  for  quite 
difterent  ends ;  the  theatres  for  stage  plays,  the  amphitheatres  for 
the  greater  shows  of  gladiators,  wild  beasts,  ^c.  The  parts  of  the 
theatre  and  amphitheatre  best  worth  our  observation,  by  reason  of 
their  frequent  use  in  the  classics,  are  as  follow : 

Scena  was  a  partition  reaching  quite  across  the  theatre,  beino- 
either  Versatilis,  or  Ductdiii,  either  to  turn  round  or  to  draw  up,  for 
the  presenting  a  new  prospect  to  the  spectators,  as  Servius  has  ob- 
served.^ 

Proscenium  was  the  space  of  ground  just  before  the  scene,  where 
the  Pulpitum  stood,  into  which  the  actors  came  from  behind  the 
scenes  to  perform."' 

The  middle  part,  or  area,  of  the  amphitheatre,  was  called  Cavea, 
because  it  was  considerably  lower  than  the  other  parts ;  whence 
perhaps  the  name  of  Pit  in  our  play-houses  was  borrowed :  And 
Arena,  because  it  used  to  be  strown  with  sand,  to  hinder  the  per- 
former from  slipping.  Lipsius  has  taken  notice,  that  the  whole 
amphitheatre  was  often  called  by  both  tliese  names."  And  the 
Veronese  still  call  the  theatre,  which  remains  almost  entire  in  that 
city,  the  Arena." 

f"  Polydor.  Virg.  de  Rer.  invent,  lib.     '"  Rosin,  lib  5.  chap  4. 
3.  chap.  13.  n  Lips,  in  Amphilheat. 

'  In  Georg.  3.  '   Marrup's  History  of  Italy. 


6G 


OF    THL    CITV. 


There  was  a  threefold  tlistinction  of  the  seats,  according  to  the 
ordinary  division  of  the  people  into  senators,  knights  and  commons: 
the  first  range  was  called  Orchestra,  from  6f;^io,Mtf<,  to  dance,  because 
in  that  part  of  the  Grecian  theatres,  the  dances  were  performed  ; 
the  second,  Eiiuestria  ;  and  the  other,  Popularia.- 

Theatres,  in  the  first  ages  of  tlie  commonwealth,  were  only  tem- 
poi  ary,  and  composed  of  wood,  which  sometimes  tumbled  down  with 
a  great  destruction,  as  Uio   and  Pliny  speak  of  one  particularly.  Of 
these  temporary  theatres,  the  most  celebrated  was  that  of  M.  Scau- 
rus,  mentioned  by  Pliny ;    the  scenes  of  which  were  divided  into 
three  partitions,  one  above  another ;  the  first  consisting  of  120  pillars 
of  marble  ;  the  next  of  the  like  number  of  pillars,  curiously  wrought 
in  'Wass  ;  the  top  <>i  all  had  still  the  same  number  of  pillars  adorned 
with  gilded  tablets.     Between  the  pillars  were  set  3000  statues 
and  images  of  brass.      The  Cavea  would  hold  80,000  men.     The 
htructure  which  Curio  afterwards  raised  at  the  funeral  of  his  father, 
though  inferior  to  the  former  in  magnificence,  yet  was  no  less  re- 
markable upon  account  of  the  admirable  artifice  and  contrivance. 
He  built  two  spacious  theatres  of  wood,  so  ordered  with  hinges  and 
other  necessaries,  as  to  be  able  to  turn  round  with  very  little  trouble. 
These  he  set  at  first  back  to  back,  for  the  celebration  of  the  stage 
plays  and  such  like  diversions,  to  prevent  the  disorder  that  might 
otherwise  arise  by  the  confusion  of  the  scenes.    Towards  the  latter 
end  of  the  day,  pulling  down  the  scenes,  and  joining  the  two  fronts 
of  the  theatres,  he  composed  an  exact  amphitheatre,  in  which  he 
again  obliged  the  people  with  a  show  of  gladiators.* 
°Pompey  the  Great  was  the  first  that  undertook  the  raising  of  a 
fixed  theatre,  which  he  built  very  nobly  with  square  stone  ;  on  which 
account,  Tacitus'  tells  us  he  was  severely  reprehended  for  intro- 
ducing a  custom  so  difterent  from  that  of  their  forefathers,  who  were 
contented  to  see  the  like  performances,  in  seats  built  only  for  the 
present  occasion,  and  in  ancient  times  standing  only  on  the  ground. 
To  this  purpose,  I  cannot  omit  an  ingenious  reflection  of  Ovid  upon 
the  luxury  of  the  age  he  lived  in,  by  comparing  the  honest  simplicity 
of  the  old  Romans  with  the  vanity  and  extravagance  of  the  modern 
in  this  particular: 

Tunc  neque  marmoreo  pendebar.t  vela  thcatrOf 

Nee  fuerant  liquido  pulpita  rubra  croco  / 
JUic  rjuas  tulevant,  nemorosa  Palatia,  frondcs 

Simpliciter  positif  :  Scena  sine  arte  fuit. 
In  gradibus  sedit pnpulus  de  cespite  facttSf 

Quaiibet  hirsutus  Jronde  tegeiite  cumas." 

y  Casalius  de  lib.  Horn,  el  Imp.  '  Lib  36.  chap.  15. 

Splendore,  lib.  2.  chap.  5.  "  Ann   14. 

q  Lib.  57.  '•  Ovid,  de  Arte  AmanU; 
■  Lib.  36.  chap.  15.             -  Ibid, 


••v; 


•  •  •  • 


•  •  •  • 

•  ^    • 

•  ••  • 

»•  •  •  • 


•    •     • 


•  •  •  • 

•  •        •  •  ■  ■ 

•  •  c 

•  •  • 


•  •  •  •      •      " 


•  -.• 

•  •  •  • 


.•/. 


-  •  • . 


•  •. 


•  •  a  • 

•  «    • 

.  ,.'  .  

•  •  •  •••• 

•  •  «  •    •  • 

* •*  • • • • 


DrfoTmaiii-  ex  Ouu|Jir»o  Prtavun"«» 


IU"^ir»f>hfU 


raiRriTa 


h,fJi.ff,*,f  /^  Hi^hn.w   ^  H,i  t  uini .  II' t  iVtmiU    VA    ML'^ . 


OF    THE    CITY. 


67 


Xo  pillars  then  of  F.g'\  pi's  costlv  stone, 

Xo  piiiph-  sails  htiMi;  wavin;^  in  tlu-  sun, 

Xo  Hovvers  about  tliescenttd  seats  were  thrown; 

IJut  sylvan  howcrs  and  shady  palaces, 

Urouglil  b\  themselves,  scciircil  tlieni  from  the  rays. 

Thus  j^niarded  and  refreshed  wiih  humble  green, 

WondVing  they  gazed  upon  the  artless  scene  : 

Their  seats  of  homely  turf  the  crowd  would  rear, 

And«ov»  r  with  tireen  boughs  their  More  disordered  liair. 

Juvenal  intimates,  that  this  good  old  custom  remained  still  uncor- 
rupted  in  several  parts  of  Italy: 

ipsa  dieruni 

Festoruin  fwibo^io  colltur  si  qitcindo  theatro 
Majtatas,-  tandcmque  ^ edit  ad puljiita  notuni 
Exordium^  cum  persons  palleiitis  /tiutU7n 
III  gremo  matvif;  foi  midat  rusticus  infans  ,- 
yhqua/es  ludntus  dlic,  simileincjue  r^idebis 
(Jrehestrom  tt  populum y' 

On  thealrcsof  turf,  in  homely  slate. 

Old  p'ays  they  act,  old  feasts' they  celebrate  ; 

The  same  nule  song-  returns  upon  the  crowd. 

And  by  tradition  is  for  wit  allowed. 

The  mimic  \  early  gives  the  same  delights, 

And  in  the'mother's  arms  the  clownish  infant  frights. 

'J'i>eir  habits  (undistinguished  by  degree) 

Are  plain  alike  ;  the  same  simplicity 

IJolh  on  the  stage,  and  in  the  pit  }  ou  see.  DnrDE?r. 

»Some  remains  of  tliis  theatre  of  Pompey  are  still  to  be  seen  at 
Home,  as  also  of  those  others  of  Maixellus,  Statilius,  Taurus,  Tibe- 
rius, and  Titus,  the  second  being  almost  entire. \ 

The  Circi  were  places  set  apart  for  the  celebration  of  several  sorts 
of  games,  which  we  will  speak  of  hereafter.  They  were  ^'•enerallv 
oblong,  or  almost  in  the  shape  of  a  bow,>  having  a  wall  quite  round* 
with  ranges  of  seats  for  the  convenience  of  the  spectators.  At  the 
entrance  of  the  Circus  stood  the  Carceres,  or  lists,  whence  they 
started;  and  just  by  them  one  of  the  Metae,  or  marks ;  the  other 
standing  at  the  farther  end  to  conclude  the  race. 

There  were  several  of  these  Circi  in  Rome,  as  those  of  Flaminius, 
Nero,  Caracalla,  and  Severus:  But  the  most  remarkable,  as  the  very 
name  imports,  was  Circus  Maximus,  first  built  by  1  arquinius  Pris- 
cus."  Hie  length  of  it  was  four  stadia  or  furlongs,  the  breadth  the 
like  number  of  acres;  with  a  trench  of  ten  feet  tleep,  and  as  many 
broad,  to  receive  the  water,  and  seats  er.ew  for  150,000  men.**  It 
was  extremely  beautified  and  adorned  by  succeeding  princes,  parti- 
cularly by  Julius  Caesar,  Augustus,  Caligula,  Domitian,  Trajan,  and 
lieliogabalus;  and  enlarged  to  such  a  prodigious  extent  as  to  be 
able  to  contain,  in  their  proper  seat,  260,000  spectators.^ 


w  Juv.  Sat.  3. 
*  Fai.ric.  Ham,  cliap.  12, 
y  Marli.»n.  Topog.  Rom.  Ant.  lib. 
4.  chap.  10, 


^  Polydor.  Virg.  de  Rcr.  invent,  lib.  2. 

chap.  4. 

•*  Liv.  et  Dionys.  Halic, 

^'  Dionys.  hb.. J.  Flin,  lib.  36. 


6S 


or    THE    CITY. 


The  Naiiinachix,  or  places  fur  tlie  shows  of  sea-engagements,  are 
no  where  particuhuly  described  ;  but  we  may  suppose  them  to  have 
been  very  little  ditfcreiit  from  the  circus  and  amphitheatres,  since 
those  sorts  of  shows  for  which  they  were  designed  were  often  ex- 
hibited in  the  afore-mentioned  places. 

Odeum  was  a  public  edifice,  much  after  the  manner  of  a  theatre/ 
where  the  musicians  and  actors  pnxately  exercised  before  their  ap- 
pearance on  the  stage.  Plutarch  iias  described  one  of  tiieir  Ddeums 
at  Atliens  (whence,  to  be  sure,  the  Romans  took  the  hint  of  theirs) 
in  tiie  fallowmt:  words:  "  For  the  contrivance  of  it,  in  tlie  inside  it 
was  full  of  seats  and  ranges  of  pillars  ;  and,  on  the  outside,  the  loof 
ur  covering  of  it  was  made  from  one  point  at  top,  with  a  great  many 
bfndings,  all  siielving  downward,  in  imitation  of  the  king  of  Persia's 
pnvilion."'^ 

The  Stadia  were  places  in  tlie  form  of  Circi,  for  the  running  of 
n\en  and  horses. "  A  very  noble  one,  Suetonius'  tells  us,  was  built 
bv  Domitian. 

The  Xysti  were  places  built,  after  the  fashion  of  porticos,  for  the 
wrestlers  to  exercise  in.' 

The  Campus  Martius,  famous  on  so  many  accounts,  was  a  large 
plain  field  lying  near  the  Tiber,  whence  we  find  it  sometimes  under 
the  name  of  Tiberinus.  It  was  called  Martius,  because  it  had  been 
consecrated  by  the  old  Romans  to  the  god  Mars. 

Besides  the  pleasant  situation,  and  other  natural  ornaments,  the 
continual  sports  and  exercises  performed  here,  made  it  one  of  the 
most  divertins;  si;;hts  near  the  citv:  For 

Here  the  young  noblemen  practised  all  manner  of  feats  ot  ac- 
tivity ;  learned  the  use  of  all  sorts  of  arms  and  weapons.  Here  the 
races,  either  with  chariots  or  single  horses,  were  undertaken.  Be- 
sides this,  it  was  nobly  adorned  with  the  statues  of  famous  men, 
and  with  arches,  columns,  and  porticos,  and  other  magnificent  struc- 
tures. Here  stood  the  Villa  Publica,  or  palace  for  tiie  reception  and 
entertainment  of  ambassadors  from  foreign  states,  who  were  not  al- 
lowed to  enter  the  city.  Several  of  the  public  Comitia  were  hehl 
in  this  field ;  and  for  that  purpose  were  the  Septa  or  Ovilia,  an 
apartment  inclosed  with  rails,  where  the  Tribes  or  Centuries  went 
in  one  by  one  to  give  their  votes.  Cicero,  in  one  of  his  epistles  to 
Atti.cus,  intimates  a  noble  desii^n  he  had  to  make  the  Septa  of  mar- 
ble, and  to  cover  them  with  a  high  roof,  with  the  addition  of  a  stately 


^'  Marlian.  Topog-  Rom.  Ant.  lib. 

''  Fabuc   Uoin.  chup.  12. 
*  llosin.  lib,  5.  chup.  4. 


!^  In  Peiiclc 

•'  Fabric.  Uonn.  chap.  12. 

•  In  Dv-mitiano. 

'  Fobhc.  Kom.  chap.  1?. 


OF  THE  CITV. 


69 


portico  or  piazzo  all  round.  But  we  hear  no  more  of  this  project, 
and  therefore  may  reasonably  suppose  he  was  disappointed  by  the 
civil  wars  which  broke  out  presently  after. 


CHAPTER  V. 

OF  THE  CURI^,    SENACULA,  BASILICi£,  FORA,  AND    COMITIUM. 

THE  Roman  Curia  (it  signifies  a  public  edifice)  was  of  two  sorts, 
divine  and  civil :  In  the  former,  the  priests  and  religious  orders  met 
for  the  regulations  of  the  rites  and  ceremonies  belonging  to  the  wor- 
ship of  the  gods  ;  In  the  other,  the  senate  used  to  assemble,  to  con- 
sult about  the  public  concerns  of  the  commonwealth.'^  The  senate 
could  not  meet  in  such  a  Curia,  unless  it  had  been  solemnly  conse- 
crated by  the  augurs,'  and  made  of  the  same  nature  as  a  temple. 
Sometimes  (at  least)  the  Curiae  were  no  distinct  building,  but  only 
a  room  or  hall  in  some  public  place ;  as  particularly  Livy™  and  Pli- 
ny speak  of  a  Curia  in  the  Comitium,  though  that  itself  were  no 
entire  structure.     The  most  celebrated  Curix  were. 

Curia  Hostilia,  built  by  Tullus   Hostilius,  as  Livy°  informs  us  : 
and. 

Curia  Pompeii,  where  the  senate  assembled  for  the  effecting  the 
death  of  Julius  Caesar. »• 

Senaculum  is  sometimes  the  same  as  Curia :"  to  be  sure  it  could 
be  no  other  than  a  meeting-place  for  the  senate,  the  same  as  the 
Grecians  called  y^ta^iet.  Sext.  Pomp.  Festus'  tells  us  of  three  Sena- 
cula  ;  two  within  the  city-walls  for  ordinary  consultations  :  and  one 
without  the  limits  of  the  city,  where  the  senate  assembled  to  give  au- 
dience to  those  ambassadors  of  foreign  states,  whom  they  were  un- 
willing to  honour  with  an  admission  into  the  city. 

Lampridius*  informs  us,  that  the  emperor  Heliogabalus  built  a 
Senaculum  purposely  for  the  use  of  the  women,  where,  upon  high 
days,  a  council  of  grave  matrons  were  to  keep  court. 

The  Basilicae  were  very  spacious  and  beautiful  edifices,  designed 
chiefiy  for  the  Centumviri,  or  the  judges  to  sit  in  a?^d  hear  causes, 
and  for  the  counsellors  to  receive  clients.  The  bankers,  too,  had  one 


^  Alex.  ab.  Alex.  1.  chap.  16. 
'  A.  Gell.  hb.  14.  chap.  7. 
•"  Lm.  1.  o  Lib.  1. 

^  Lib.  1. 
^  Sueton.  in  Jul,  Cars.  chap.  80. 


11 


1  Murlian.  Topog.  Ant.  Rom.  lib.  3. 

chap.  2. 

'  In  Toce  Senaculum. 

'  Li  vit.  Heliogab. 


70 


OF   TIIL   CITY 


part  of  ii  allotrd  lor  llieir  residence.'  Vossiu^"  has  observed,  tliai 
these  Hasilicic  were  exactly  in  the  shape  of  our  churches,  oblono-  al- 
most like  a  ship  ;  which  was  the  reason  that,  upon  the  ruin  of  so  ma- 
ny of  them,  Christain  churches  were  several  times  raised  on  the  old 
foundatioris,  and  wry  oftei.  a  whole  Hasilica  converted  to  such  a 
pious  use.  And  hence,  perhaps,  all  our  ^neat  domos  or  Cathedrals 
are  still  called  Hasilicci:. 

The  Roman    Forums  were  public  buildin«;s,  about  three  times  as 
long  as  they  were  broad.     All  the  compass  of  the  Forum  was  sur- 
rounded with   arched  porticos,   only   some   passa'a's  bein"-  left  f(u 
places  of  entrance.  They  generally  contrived  to  have  the  most  state- 
ly edifice  all  around  them,  as  temples,  theatres,  basilica:,  ^'c,\ 

They  were  of  two  sorts  ;  Fora  Civilia,  and  Fora  \'enalia  ;*the  first 
were  designed  for  the  ornament  of  the  city,  and  for  the  use  of  pub- 
lic courts  of  justice  ;  the  others  were  intended  for  no  other  end  but 
the  necessities  and  conveniencies  of  the  inhabitants,  and  were  no 
dcmbt  ecpiivalent  to  our  n)arket>.  I  believe  Lipsius,  in  the  tlescrip- 
tion  that  has  been  given  above,  means  only  the  former.  Of  these 
there  were  five  very  considerable  in  Rome  : 

Forum  Romanum,  built  by  Romulus,  and  adorned  with  porticos 
on  all  sides  by  Tarciuinius  Priscus.  It  was  called  Forum  Romanum, 
or  simply  Forum,  by  way  of  eminence,  on  account  of  its  anticpiity, 
and  of  the  most  frequent  use  of  it  in  public  affairs.  Martial  and 
Statins^  for  the  same  reason  give  it  tiio  name  of  Forum  Latium; 
Ovid  the   same,'   and  of  Forum  Magnum;'    and   Ilerodian'  calls  it 

THK  us;^^«/cfv  ayc^av,   ForUUl    V  CtUS. 

Statius  the  poet"  has  given  an  accurate  ilescription  of  the  F(uun) 
in  his  poem  upon  the  statue  of  Domitian  on  horse-back,  set  up  here 
by  that  emperor. 

Forum  Julium,  built  by  Julius  Caesar  with  the  spoils  taken  in  the 
Gallic  war.  The  very  area  Suetonius  tells  us,  cost  l()(),Of)0  ses- 
terces; and  Dio'  allirms  it  to  have  much  exceeded  the  Forum  Ro- 
manum. 

Forum  Augusti,  built  by  Augustus  Cxsar,  and  reckoned  by  Pliny 
among  the  wonders  of  the  city.  The  most  remarkable  curiositv  was 
the  statues  in  the  two  porticos  on  each  side  of  the  main  buildin"-.  In 
one  were  all  the  Latin  kings,  beginning  with  .Eneas;  in  the  other, 
all  the  kings  of  Rome,  beginning  with  Romulous,  and  most  of  the 


or    THE    CITY. 


71 


*  Rosin.  Ant   li!^  9.  cliap.  7. 

"  In  voce  nasillou. 

"  Lips,  de  Mag-.  Uoin. 

^Epif^.  lib.  2 

'*  Sylv.ar.  lib.  1.  chap.  1, 


y   Fa.st.  4. 

^  In  VI t.  M.  Antonin. 
'•   Syl.  l,b.  1    chap.    1 
*^  In  ,lul.  Cxs.  chap.  26. 
'I  Dio.  lib.  43. 


Fast. 


er 


eininent  persons  In  the  commonwealth, and  Augustus  himself  amon^ 
the  rest;  with  an  inscription  upon  the  pedestal  of  every  statue,  ex^ 
pressing  the  chief  actions  and  exploits  of  the  person  it  represented.^ 
This  Forum,  as  Spartian  informs  us,  was  restored  bv  the  empe- 
ror Hadrian. 

^  Forum  Nervae,  begun  by  Di.mitian,  as  Suetonius^^'  relates,  but 
luushed  and  named  by  the  emperor  Nerva.  In  this  Forum,  Alex- 
ander  Severus  set  up  the  statues  of  all  the  emperors  that  had  been 
canonized,"'  in  imitation  of  the  contrivance  of  Augustus,  mentioned 
but  now.  This  Forum  was  called  'I'ransitorium,  because  it  lay  very 
convenient  for  a  passage  to  the  other  three;  and  Palladium,  from 
the  statue  ot  Minerva,  the  tutelar  deity  of  Augustus;'  upon  which 
account,  perhaps,  Fabricius  attributes  the  name  of  Palladium  to  the 
lorum  of  that  emperor. 

There  is  scarce  any  thing  remaining  of  this  Forum,  except  an  old 
decayed  arch,  which  the  people,  by  a  strange  coriuption,  instead  of 
Nerva's  Arch,  call  Noah's  Ark-- 

But  the  most  celebrated  for  the  admiiable  structure  and  contri- 
vance was  the  Forum  Trajani,  built  by  the  emperor  Trajan,  with 
the  foreign  spoils  he  had  taken  in  the  wars.  The  covering  of  this 
cdiHce  was  all  brass,  the  porticos  exceedingly  beautiful  and  magni- 
ficent, with  pillars  of  more  than  ordinary  height,  and  chapiters  of 
excessive  bigness.' 

Ammianus  Marcellinus,  in  the  description  of  Constantius's  tri- 
umphal entrance  into  Rome,  when  he  has  brought  him,  with  no  or- 
dinary admiration,  by  the  baths,  the  Pantheon,  the  Capitol,  and 
other  noble  structures,  as  soon  as  ever  he  gives  him  a  sight  of  this 
Forum  of  Trajan,  he  puts  him  into  an  ecstacy,  and  cannot  forbear 
making  an  harangue  upon  the  matter.  •    We  meet  in  the  sajne  place 
with  a  very  smart  repartee  which  Constantius  received  at  this  time 
from  Oi  niisdas,  a  Persian  prince.    The  emperor,  as  he  strangely  ad- 
mired every  thing  belonging  to  this  noble  pile,  so  he  had  a  particular 
fancy  for  the  statue  of  Trajan's  horse,  which  stood  on  the  top  of  the 
building,  and  expressed  his  desire  of  doing  as  much  for  his  own 
beast:  *'  Pray,  Sir,  says  the  prince,  before  you  talk  of  getting  such  a 
horse,  will  you  be  pleased  to  build  such  a  stable  to  put  him  in."" 

The  chief  Fora  Venalia,  or  markets,  were, 

Boarium,  for  oxen  and  beef.     Propertius'  has  a  pretty  fancy  about 
fhis  Forum,  that  it  took  its  name  from  Hercules's  oxen,  w^hich  he 


=  Lips,  de  Mujjnitud.  Itoni. 
*  In  vit  Ka<hi.»ni. 
s  In  Dumit.  chap.  5. 
**  Spartian.  in  Sevro. 
'  T.ips.  in  .Magn.  Kom 


/    . 


3    Koma.  chap 

**  Marlian.  lib  5.  chap.  14. 

'  Idem.  lib.  3   chap.  13. 
^"  Atnniiun.  Marcellin.  Hist,  lib   16. 

•^  Thid.  >  Lib.  4.  Eleif.  lO.ver.  ?0. 


72 


OF    TJIE    CITY. 


I    ! 


OF  THE  CITY. 


73 


bn)ue;ht  from  Spain,  and  rescued  them  here,  after  tliey  had  been 
stolen  by  Cacus. 

Suarium,  for  swine. 

Pistoriuui,  for  bread. 

Cupedinarium,  for  dainties. 

Olitoriuni,  for  roots,  sallads,  and  such  like. 

The  Comitium  was  only  a  part  of  the  Forum  Komanum,  which 
served  sometimes  for  the  celebration  of  the  Comitia,  which  will  be 
described  hereafter. 

In  this  part  of  the  forum  stood  the  Rostra,  beins:  a  Susirestum,  or 
sort  of  pulpit,  adorned  with  the  beaks  of  ships  taken  in  a  sea-fight 
from  the  inhabitants  of  Antium  in  Italy,  as  Livyp  informs  us.  In 
this  the  causes  were  pled,  the  orations  made,  and  the  funeral  pane- 
gyrics spoken  by  persons  at  the  death  of  their  relations;  which 
pious  action  they  termed  Diftnictl  pro  rostris  luudatio. 

Hard  by  was  fixed  the  Putcal,  of  wliicii  we  have  several  ami  very 
dittVrent  accounts  from  the  critics,  but  none  more  probable  than 
the  opinion  of  the  ingenious  Monsieur  Dacier,'  which  he  delivers  to 
this  purpose : 

*'  The  Romans,  whenever  a  thunderbolt  fell  upon  a  place  without 
a  roof,  took  care,  out  of  superstition,  to  have  a  sort  of  cover  built 
over  it,  which  they  properly  called  Puteal.  This  had  the  name  of 
Puteal  Libonis,  and  Scribonium  Puteal,  because  Scribonius  Libo 
erected  it  by  order  of  the  senate.  The  Prxtor's  tribunal  standinjc 
just  by,  is  often  signified  in  authors  by  the  same  expression." 


CHAPTER  VJ. 

OF    THE    PORTICOS,    ARCHES,    COLUMNS,    AND    TROPHIES. 

IN  accounts  of  the  eminent  buildings  of  the  city,  the  Portico^ 
have  ever  had  an  honourable  place.  They  were  structures  of  curious 
work  and  extraordinary  beauty,  annexed  to  public  edifices,  sacred 
and  civil,  as  well  for  ornament  as  use.  They  generally  took  their 
names  either  from  the  temples  that  they  stood  near;  as  Porticus 
Concordise,  Quirini,  Horculis,  ^'c.  or  from  the  authors;  as  Porticus 
Pompeia,  Octavia,  Livia,  ^'c.  or  from  the  nature  and  form  of  the 
building;  as  Porticus  curva,  stadiata,  porphyretica;  or  from  the 


p  Lib.  8. 


*5  Dacier,  Notes  on  Horace,  Book.  2.  Sat.  6.  verse  3.> 


shops  that  were  kept  in  them,  as  Margaritaria,  and  Argentaria;  or 
from  the  remarkable  painting  in  them,  as  Porticus  Isidis,  Europse, 
<5J'c. ;  or  else  from  the  places  to  which  they  joined,  as  Porticus  Am- 
phitheatri,  Porticus  Circi,  ^'cJ 

These  porticos  were  sometimes  put  to  very  serious  use,  servino-  for 
the  assemblies  of  the  senate  on  several  accounts.  Sometimes  the 
jewellers,  and  such  as  dealt  in  the  most  precious  wares,  took  up  here 
their  standing,  to  expose  their  goods  for  sale;  but  the  general  use 
that  they  were  put  to,  was  the  pleasure  of  walking  or  riding  in 
them;  in  the  shade  in  summer,  and  in  winter  in  the  dry,  like  the 
present  piazzas  in  Italy.  Velleius  Paterculus,"  when  he  deplores 
the  extreme  corruption  of  manners  that  had  crept  into  Rome,  upon 
the  otherwise  happy  conclusion  of  the  Carthaginian  war,  mentions 
particularly  the  vanity  of  the  noblemen,  in  endeavouring  to  out- 
shine one  another  in  the  magnificence  of  their  porticos,  as  a  great 
instance  of  their  extravagant  luxury.  And  Juvenal  in  his  seventh 
Satire  complains : 

Balnea  sexcentis,  et  pluris  porticus,  in  qua 
Ge.ste.tur  dominus  (juoties  pluit :  anne  sereuum 
Expectet,  Kpurgatve  futo  jumenta  recenti  ? 
Hic  potius  ;  namque  liic  mundi  nitet  ungula  mulce. 

Oil  sumptuous  baths  the  rich  their  wealth  bestow. 

Or  some  expensive  airy  portico  ; 

Where  safe  from  showers  they  may  be  borne  in  state. 

An  i,  free  from  tempc^sts,  for  fair  wenther  wait  : 

Or  rather  not  expect  the  clcariiuj;  sun; 

Throup^h  thick  and  thin  tfieir  equip  .j^e  must  run: 

Or  staying,  'tis  not  for  their  servants  suke, 

But  that  their  mules  no  prejudice  may  take.         chaules  drtdet*. 

Arches  were  public  buildings,  designed  for  the  reward  and  en- 
couragement of  noble  enterprises,  erected  generally  to  the  honour 
of  such  eminent  persons  as  had  either  won  a  victory  of  extraordina- 
ry consequence  abroad,  or  had  rescued  the  commonwealth  at  home 
from  any  considerable  danger.  At  first  they  were  plain  and  rude 
structures,  by  no  means  remarkable  for  beauty  or  state.  But  in  lat- 
ter times  no  expenses  were  thought  too  great  for  the  rendering 
them  in  the  highest  manner  splendid  and  magnificent;  nothing  be- 
ing more  usual  than  to  have  the  greatest  actions  of  the  heroes  they 
stood  to  honour  curiously  expressed,  or  the  whole  procession  of  the 
triumph  cut  out  on  the  sides.  The  arches  built  by  Romulus  were 
only  of  brick;  that  of  Camillus,  of  plain  square  stone;  but  then 
those  of  Caesar,  Drusus,  Titus,  Tiajan,  Gordian,  (J'c.  were  all  en- 
tirely of  marble.* 

As  to  their  figure,  they  were  at  first  semicircular,  whence  proba- 
bly they  took  their  name.  Afterwards  they  were  built  four-square, 

Fahricii  Roma.  chap.  1".        »  Lfb.  O.chap. !.         -  Fabricli  Homa,  chap.  14. 


74 


Ul      IklL    CIIY. 


OF    THE    CITY. 


75 


with  a  spatioub  arched  gate  in  the  niithlle,  and  little  ones  on  each 
side.  Upon  the  vaulted  part  of  the  middle  i^ate  huni^  httle  u  in:;ed 
ini;ii,^e-,  representing  victory,  with  crowns  in  their  hands,  which 
wiuMi  they  were  let  down,  they  put  upon  the  conqueror's  head  as 
lie  passed  under  in  triumph." 

J'hc  columns  or  pillars  were  none  of  the  meanest  beauties  of  the 
city.  They  were  at  last  converted  to  the  same  desii;n  as  the  arches, 
for  the  honourable  memorial  of  some  noble  victory  or  exploit,  after 
they  had  been  a  lon^  time  in  use  for  the  chief  ornaments  of  the  se- 
pulchres of  great  men;  as  may  be  o;athered  froni  Homer,  Iliad  16, 
where  Juno,  when  she  is  foretelling  the  death  of  Sarpedon,  and 
speaking  at  least  of  carrying  him  into  his  own  country  to  be  buried, 
has  these  w  ords  : 

EvGaf  i  ra^^^^vfTiivt  K»(ny;nrtt  t*,  «t«/  tj, 
TofA.oftTk  5/jXn  T»  TO  ^a*   >«;ttc£5<  ^xtanoiu 

Tilt  re  shall  liis  i;n>tlier.s  »n.l  sa<i  friciKls  receive 
'V\\v  breathless  cojpM-,  and  b<  ar  it  lo  the  g^ravc. 
A  jiill  tr  sl»  ill  Ije  reared,  a  tomh  be  laid, 
'I'lie  nohlebt  lioiiMir  e  >rtli  can  give  iljc  iieati. 

The  pillars  of  the  empeiors  Trajan  and  Anfonius  have  been  ex- 
tremely admired  for  their  beauty  and  curious  work;  and  therefore 
deserve  a  particular  <li'scriptit)n. 

The  former  was  set  up  in  tlw  middle  of  Ti  ajan's  forum,  being  com- 
posed of  24  great  stones  of  marble,  but  so  curiously  cemented,  as  to 
seem  one  entire  natural  stone.    The  height  was  144  feet,  accordino- 
to  Kutropius;^  though  Marlain^  seems  to  make  them  but  128;  vet 
they  are  easily  reconciled,  if  we  suppose  one  of  them  to  have  begun 
the  measure  from  the  pillar  itself,  and  the  other  from  the  basis.     It 
is  ascended  on  the   inside  by  185  winding  stairs,  and  has  40  little 
windows  for  the  admission  of  the  light.  The  whole  pillar  is  incrusted 
with  marble  ;  in  which  are  expressed  all  the  noble  actions  of  the  em- 
peror, and  particularly  the  Decian  war.  One  may  see  all  over  it  the 
several  figures  of  forts,  bulwarks,  bridges,  ships,  ^'cand  all  manner 
of  arms,  as  shields,  helmets,  targets,  swords,  spears,  daggers,  belts, 
i^c.  togetlier  witli    the  several  offices  and  employments  of  the  sol- 
diers;  souie  digging  trenches,  some  measuring  out  a  place  for  the 
tents,  and  others  making  a  triumphal  procession.^  But  the  noblest 
ornament  of  this  pillar,   was  the  statue  of  Trajan  on  the   top,  of  a 
u;igantic  bigness;  being  no  less  than  twenty  feet  high.     He  was  re- 
presented in  a  coat  of  armour  proper  to  the  general,  holding  in  his 
left  hand  a  sceptre,  in  his  right  a  hollow  globe  of  gold,  in  which  hi^ 
own  ashes  were  reposited  after  his  death.^ 

"  I-abricii  Roma,  chap.  15.       ^^  Lib.  Z  chap.  13.  >  Cassalius  Pi»r.  1.  c.  11 

^  llist.  lib  tl  ^  Fabricius.cliap.  r. 


The  column  of  Antonius  was  raised  in  imitation  of  this,  which  it 
exceeded  only  in  one  respect,  that  it  was  ITG  feet  high  ;'■  for  the  work 
was  much  inferior  to  tiie  former,  as  being  undertaken  in  the  declining 
age  (d-  the  empire.  The  ascent  on  the  inside  was  by  lOG  stairs,  and 
the  wind(»ws  in  the  sides  56.  The  sculpture  and  the  other  ornaments 
were  of  the  same  nature  as  those  of  the  first ;  and  on  the  top  stood 
a  Colossus  of  tlie  emperor,  naked,  as  appears  from  some  of  his  coins.- 

Both  these  columns  are  still  standing  at  R(m»e  ;  the  former  most 
entire.  But  Pope  8ixtus  the  First,  instead  of  the  two  statues  of  the 
emperor,  set  up  St.  Peter's  on  the  column  of  Trajan,  and  St.  Paul's 
on  that  of  Antoninus." 

Among  the  columns,  we  must  not  pass  by  the  Miliarium  aureum, 
a  gilded  pillar  in  the  Forum,  erected  by  Augustus  Csesar,at  which 
all  the  highways  of  Italy  met,  and  were  concluded.-  From  this  they 
counted  their  miles,  at  the  end  of  every  mile  setting  up  a  stone; 
whence  came  the  phrase  of  Primus  ab  urbe  Japh,  and  the  like! 
This  pillar,  as  Mr.  Lassels  informs  us,  is  still  to  be  seen. 

Nor  must  we  forget  the  Columna  BelJica,  thus  describetl  bv  Ovid  : 

Prospicit  a  tergo  summum  bvevis  area  Cirann, 

Kst  tin  11071  fnii'T  r  parva  columna  nota  : 
Ilnic  s-htrt  hasta  ?n(inu,  belli  pr\rnurtcia   mitti 

In  rcgem  et  gc/item,  cum  placet  arma  capif' 

Bt-hiiid  the  Circus  on  the  level  ground, 
Stands  a  small  pdlar  for  its  use  renowned  : 
Hvnce  'tis  our  J»er  dd  throws  the  fatal  spear, 
Denotes  the  quarrel,  and  begins  the  war. 

But  ihose  who  admire  antiquity,  will  think  all  these  inferior  to 
the  Cohtmna  nostruta,  setup  to  the  honour  of  C.  Duillius,  when  he 
had  gained  so  famous  a  victory  over  the  C:arthaginian  and  Sicilian 
fleets,  A.  U.  C.  493,  and  adorned  witli  the  beaks  of  the  vessels  taken 
in  the  engagement.  This  is  still  to  be  seen  in  Rome,  and  never  fails 
of  a  visit  from  any  curious  stranger.  The  inscription  on  the  basis 
is  a  noble  example  of  the  old  way  of  writing,  in  the  early  times  of 
the  commonwealth.  Besides  this  ancient  and  most  celebrated  one, 
there  were  several  other  cohnnnx  ros/rafae  erected  on  like  occasions ; 
as  particularly  four  by  Augustus  Caesar,  after  the  Actium  defeat  of 
Antony  :  To  these  Virgii  alludes : 

^iddum  ct  navali  surge7ites  acre  Columnas.^ 

The  design  of  the  trophies  is  too  well  known  to  need  any  expli- 
cation ;  the  shape  of  them  cannot  be  better  understood  than  by  the 
following  description  of  the  poet  : 


'  Marlian  lib.  6.  chap   13. 
^  Casal.  Par.  1.  chap.  11. 


»  Id.        '  Marlian.  lib.  3.  chap.  18. 

*  Ovid.  Fast.  6.  "  Georg.  3, 


76 


OF  THE  CITY. 


Jngentem  quercvm   decisis  ut(U(jue  ramti, 
Constituit  tumuU    fulgentuiquf  niduit  u^ma, 
Alrzejitt  duiit  t'juvuis;  tibi  mugnt  ttop'apum 
Heiii/iotfr.s  :  Jlptut  vuruntes  sanguine  i  /  istas, 
Teiiique  trunca  "/;i  et  bis  sex  thoracu  petitum 
l^erfos.<uinqUt'  'ocis  •  ciypeutmjue  ex  are  .i   istvx 
Subugat,  atquc  tnsem  coUu  suspendit  ebumum  ^ 

Andfiist  he  lopped  an  oak's  great  brunches  round; 

Tlje  trunk  Ije  fastened  in  a  rising-  ground; 

And  liere  he  fixed  the  shining  armour  on, 

'Jht-  uiighty  spoil  fiom  proud  Mezi-nfius  won: 

Above  the  crest  was  placed,  thai  dr  -pt  with  blood, 

A  grateful  trophy  to  the  warlike  ^od. 

His  shattered  spears  stuck  round  :  The  cor.slei  too, 

Pirrced  in  twelve  places,  hung  deformed  below  : 

While  the  left  side  his  massy  target  bears, 

The  neck  the  glittering  blade  he  brandished  in  the  wars. 

Of  those  trophies  wliich  Marius  raised  after  the  Ciinbrlc  war,  still 
rcmainifig  at  Rome,  wc  have  this  account  in  Fabricius:  *' Thev  are 
two  triinks  of  marble  hung  round  with  spoils;  one  of  them  is  covered 
with  a  scaly  corslet,  with  shields  and  other  military  ornaments:  just 
before  it,  is  set  a  younj^  man  in  the  posture  of  a  captive,  with  his 
hands  behind  him,  and  all  round  were  winged  images  of  victory. 
The  other  is  set  out  witli  the  common  military  garb,  having  a  shield 
of  an  unequal  round,  and  two  helmets,  one  open  and  adorned  with 
crests,  the  other  close  without  crests.  (Jn  the  same  trophv  is  the 
s.hape  of  a  soldier's  coat,  with  several  other  designs,  which  b^>  i  easoH 
f>f  the  decay  of  the  marble,  are  very  difficult  to  be  discovered."* 


CHAPTER  VH. 

OF  THE    liAGMOS,  A^iU/EDUCTS,  CLOAC/F,  AND    PUBLIC  WAYS. 

THERE  cannot  be  a  greater  instance  of  the  magnificence,  or  rather 
luxury  of  the  Romans,  than  their  noble  bagnios.  Ammianus  Marcel- 
linus  observes,'  that  they  were  built  in  modum  Provinciarum,  as 
large  as  provinces  :  But  the  great  Valesius'  judges  the  word  Provin- 
ciarumtobe  a  corruption  of  Piscinarum.  And  though  this  emenda- 
tion does  in  some  measure  extenuate  one  part  of  the  vanity,  which 
has  been  so  often  alleged  against  them  from  the  authority  of  that 
passage  of  the  historian ;  yet  the  prodigious  accounts  we  have  of  their 
ornaments  and  funiture  will  bring  them,  perhaps,  under  a  censure 


^  Virg  ^T'.neid.  11. 
*^  Fabricius,  chap.  14. 


'*  Ammian.  Marcel),  lib.  16. 
•  Jy'ota  ad  locum. 


0¥    THE    CITY 


77 


no  more  favourable  than  the  former.  Seneca,  speaking  of  the  luxury 
of  his  countrymen  in  this  respect,  complains,  that  they  were  arrived 
to  such  a  pitch  of  niceness  and  delicacy,  as  to  scorn  to  set  their  feet 
on  any  thing  but  precious  stones.'  And  Pliny  wishes  good  old  Fa- 
bricius were  but  alive  to  see  the  degeneracy  of  his  posterltv,  when 
the  very  w(Mnen  must  have  their  seats  in  the  baths  of  solitfsilver.*' 
But  a  description  from  a  poet  may,  perhaps,  be  more  diverting,* 
and  tins  8tatius  has  (obliged  us  within  his  poem  upon  the  baths  of 
Claudius  EtHKcu^.  steward  to  the  emperor  Claudius: 

A'il  ibi p/rbehtvi  ;  nu^u'juam  Teuus  fa  Kulebis 
yKni,-  stil  ur^-tiito  ft'ix  fjropeHitw  uuda. 
^ir:fcnto(jue  cujit,  lubi  isqut  nite  ttibus  iiistat 
JitUiiiis  iuiriita  auus.  tt  abire  rtcusut. 
Xothing  there's  vulgar;   not  the  fuirest  brass 
In  all  the  gliilrring  siiuctuic  tlaims  a  place. 
Fn.m  silver  pipfsthe  hui)py  \va;er.s  flow, 
In  silver  cisterns  ire  rectiv't-d  below. 
See  wjiere  with  ro  )le  pride  ihe  donl)tful  stream 
Stands  lixrd  w  th  wonder  on  the  sinning  brim  ; 
Surviys  it»  rlciies,  and  admires  its  state  ; 
Loili  to  be  ravished  from  the  glorious  seat. 

The  most  remarkable  bagnios  were  those  of  the  emperors  Diocle. 
sian  and  Antoninus  Caracalla ;  great  part  of  which  are  standing  at 
this  time,  and  with  the  vast  high  arches,  the  beautiful  and  stately 
pillars,  the  extraordinary  plenty  of  foreign  marble,  the  curious  vault- 
ing of  the  roofs,  the  prodigious  number  of  spacious  apartments,  and 
a  thousand  other  ornaments  and  conveniencies,  are  as  pleasing  a  sight 
to  a  traveller,  as  any  other  antiquities  in  Rome. 

To  these  may  be  added  the  Nymph^a;  a  kind  of  grottos  sacred 
to  the  nymphs,  from  whose  statues  which  adorned  them,  or  from  the 
waters  and  fountains  which  tliey  afforded,  their  name  is  evidently- 
derived.  A  short  essay  of  the  famous  Lucus  Holstenius,  on  the  old 
picture  of  a  Nymphxum  dug  up  at  the  foundation  of  the  palace  of 
the  Barbarini,  is  to  be  met  with  in  the  fourth  tome  of  Grseviu's  The- 
saurus, p.  1800. 

The  ac|ua:ducts  were,  witliout  question,  some  of  the  noblest  dg. 
signs  of  the  old  Romans.  Sextus  Julius  Frontinus,  a  Roman  author 
and  a  person  of  consular  dignity,  who  has  compiled  a  whole  treatise 
on  this  subject,  allirms  them  to  be  the  clearest  token  of  the  gran- 
deur of  the  empire.  The  first  invention  of  them  is  attributed  to  Ap- 
pius  Claudius,  A.  U.  C.  441.  who  brought  water  into  the  city  by  a 
channel  of  eleven  miles  in  length.  But  this  was  very  inconsiderable 
to  those  that  were  afterwards  carried  on  by  the  emperors  and  otheF 
persons;  several  of  which  were  cut  through  the  mountains,  and  all 
other  impediments,  for  above  forty  miles  together ;  and  of  such  an 


^  Kpist.af. 


12 


^  Li)».  33.  6hap.  \7 


75 


WF    TiiE    CITY. 


OF    THE    CITY. 


7» 


heijirht,  that  a  man  on  horseback,  as  Pi(>copius  informs,  nii«rht  ride 
through  them  vvith«mt  the  least  tliHit  ult\ .'  But  this  is  meant  only 
of  the  constant  course  of  the  channel ;  for  the  vaults  and  arches  were 
in  some  places  109  feet  hiirh.-  Procopius  makes  the' aqua;ducts 
but  fourteen:  Victor-  has  enlarged  the  number  to  twenty  :  In  the 
names  of  them  the  waters  were  only  mentioned  ;  as  Aqua  Claudia. 
Aqua  Appia,  tj'c. 

The  noble   poet  Rutilius  thu>  touches  on   the  aqueducts,  in  his 
ingenious  itinerary  : 

Qnidloquav  acrio  ptmlentes  fornice  vivos^ 
Qua  vix  nnhnf^ras  tollcet  Iris  aquas  'J 
Hon  potius  dicas  c  evisse  tn  sidera  montcSy 
Tulr  (iigaritium  C.rncia  Liudat  opus.v 
What,  shoulfj  I  .-in^'-  how  lofty  wattr.-  flow  "^ 

Fron,  uin  vuMlts,  :ui.|  h-ivi-  ('he  rain  ;>flo\v,  S 

\\\\\\v  conqiK-rt-a  Iris  >iclas  with  her  tmcqual  bow  ?     ^ 
i3«>lcl  TvphoM  licrc  had  s[):trefl  his  strt-n^rth  uiul  skill, 
Ant]  ri  .ciiM  Jove's  wails  tVom  an\  singh-  hill. 

f5ui  that  which  Pliny  calls  Opits  ontnhim  inaj'imtan,  were  the 
(Jloacjc,  or  common  gutters  f(.r  the  coii\eyance  of  dirt  andfdth. 
And  because  no  autliority  can  be  better  than  his,  we  may  venture 
to  borrow  the  whole  accoutit  of  them  from  the  same  place.  Cloucx, 
ojnts  omnium  maximum,  <J*c. 

"  The  Cloacx,  the  greatest  of  all  the  works,  he  contrived  by  un- 
dermining and  cutting  through  tlie  seven  hills  upon  which  R*Mne  is 
seated,  making  the  city  hang,  as  it  were,  between  heaven  and  earth, 
and  capable  of  being  sailed  under:  M.  Agrippa,  in  his   .Kdileshipi 
made  no  less  than  seven  streams  meet  tc.gether  under  ground  in  one 
main  channel,  with  such  a  ra|)id  current,  as  to  carry  all  before  them 
that  they  met  with  in  their  passage.  Scnnetimes,  when  they  are  vio- 
lently swelled  with  immoderate  rains,  they  beat  with  excessive  fury 
against  the  paving  at  tin-  bottom,  ami  on  the  sides.  Ji^ometimes,  in  a 
flood,  the  Tiber  waters   ()j>iM)se  them  in  their  course;  and  then  the 
two   streams   encounter  with  all  the  fury  imaginable;  and  vet  the 
works   preserve  their   old  strength,  without  any  sensible   dlnnage. 
Sometimes  huge  pieces  of  stone  and  timber,  or  such  like  materials, 
are  carried  down  the  channel,  and  yet  tiie  fabric  receives  no  detri- 
ment. Sometimes  the  ruin  of  whole  buildings,  destroyed  by  lire  or 
other  casualties  press  heavily  upon  the  frame.    Sometimes  terrible 
earthquakes  shake  the  very  foundations,  and  yet  thev  still  continue 
impregnable,  almost  800  years  since  they  were  first 'laid  by  Tarciui- 
nius."' 

\  ery  little  inferior  io  the  worls  already  mentioned  were  the  Pub- 
lic Ways,  built  with  extraordinary  charge,  to  a  great  distance  from 
•  Pioc-   p.us  cU  Hell.  (.olh.  lib.  1.         o   I).  sc.i,>.  Ur!>    lir^nm. 
Dcliell.  Gcnl).  hb.  1.  n  vim.  lib.  ^6.  chap.  1  > 


the  city  on  all  sides.  They  were  generally  paved  with  flint,  though 
sometimes,  and  especially  without  the  city,  with  pebbles  and  gravel. 
The  most  noble,  in  all  respects,  was  the  Via  Appia,  taking  its  name 
from  the  author  Appius,  the  same  that  invented  the  Aqueducts,  vide 
p.  5.5,  56,  This  was  carried  to  such  a  vast  length,  that  Procopius'^ 
reckons  it  a  very  good  five  days  joui  ney  to  reach  the  end  ;  and  Lip- 
sius'  computes  it  at  350  miles.  An  account  of  as  much  of  this  way 
as  lies  between  Home  and  Naples,  the  right  reverend  the  present 
lord  bishop  of  Sarum  has  obliged  us  with,  in  his  letters  ;♦  he  tells  us  it 
is  twelve  feet  broad  ;  all  made  of  huge  stones,  most  of  them  blue  ; 
and  they  are  generally  a  foot  and  a  half  large  on  all  sides.  And  pre- 
sently after,  admiiing  the  extiaordinary  strength  of  the  work,  he 
says,  that  though  it  has  lasted  above  1800  years,  yet,  in  most  places, 
it  is  for  several  miles  together  as  entire  as  when  it  w  as  first  made. 
And  as  to  the  Via  Flaminia,  the  next  causey  of  note,  the  same  au- 
thor observes,  that  though  it  be  not  indeed  so  entire  as  the  former, 
ret  there  is  enough  left  to  raise  a  just  idea  of  the  Roman  greatness. 
I  must  desire  leave  to  conclude  this  subject  with  the  ino-enious 
epigram  of  Janus  Vitalis,  an  Italian  poet : 

Quia  liomain  in  tntdi    quit  is,  vovus  advena,  Jiornci, 

Kt  liovir.   tn  lioma  nil  rtperis  tntdia  ? 
.  ispicc  viurot  inn  violes.  pr  rupiaque  saxa^ 

Oli/utar/ue  liorrcnti  va,sta  'I'heatru  situ  : 
Hac  sunt  Jioniu  :   I'ldcn   vc/ut  ipsa  cudavera  tantx 

Ifrbis  adJiuc  Spirent  impeviosa  minus  ? 
Vicii  u'  li  'c  'inunauni,  nisaest  se  vincevc  :  vicit, 

►i  se  lion  vu'tuVL  m:e  quid  ni  orbe  foret. 
Jlinc  vicCii  in  Jiovi :  vtctrix  Jlonia  ilia  stpulta  est, 

Jltque  eadevi  victrij-  vie  toque  Jia^na  fuit. 
AlbuLi  Jtoimni  resiat  nunc  notninis  inde.i\ 

f^ui  quvquc  nunc  rupidis  fertur  tn  nquor  aquis. 
JJisct  /line  quoa  possit  Jurtuiia  ;  tnitiiota  lubascuntt 

Hi  qiui  pe  pciuo  sunt  agitata,  mancnt. 

To  strek  for  lionie,  vain  stranger,  art  thou  come, 

And  tincl*st  no  mark,  within  lionie's  walls,  ofUome? 

See  here  the  craggy  walls,  tlie  towers  detaced. 

And  piles  that  frighten  more  than  once  they  pleased  : 

See  the  vast  ihealres,  a  shapeless  load, 

And  sights  niore  tragic  ihan  ihty  ever  showed: 

Tin>,  ihis  is  l{ome  ;  Her  huighiy  drcase  spread, 

Siill  av%es  in  ruin,  and  commands  when  dead. 

'I'JK  subject  world  first  look  from  her  their  fate; 

And  when  she  CMily  stood  tmconquered  yet, 

Ilcrs«.lf  she  last  siibdut-d,  to  make  the  work  complete. 

But  ah  I  so  d«  ar  the  fatal  triumph  cost, 

That  conquering  Rome  is  in  the  conquered  lost. 

Yet  lolling  Tiber  still  maintains  his  stream. 

Swelled  with  the  glories  of  the  Roman  name. 

Strange  power  of  fate;  unshaken  moles  must  waste; 

^VIlile  things  that  ever  move,  for  ever  last. 


'  1)0  Rell.  Codi.  Hb. 
«  De  Magn.  Kom. 


1. 


^  Letter 4th. 
•  Ibid. 


-iHK    ROMAKS. 


^\ 


IVAUT  IT.^^?,(M)R  TT. 


OF    liJi:  itKLKJON    or  THE  U0MAiN5> 


Cir APTKll  I. 

OF  THE  TTELIGION  AND  IMOnALnY  01    THE    ROMANS  IN  GEVEIIAL. 

THAT  reliujion  is  absolutely  iiecessaiy  for  the  establisliiiig  of 
civil  jrovenuneiit,  is  a  truth  so  far  fioui  belu":  denied  bv  anv  sort  ol 
persons,  that  we  meet  with  too  many  who  are  unwillinu;  to  all(»w  any 
other  design  in  sacred  institutions.  As  to  the  Romans,  i(  has  been 
universally  agreed,  that  virtue  and  fortune  were  eno;aged  in  a  sort 
of  noble  contention  for  the  advancement  of  the  grandeur  and  hap- 
piness of  that  people.  And  a  jud<i;e,  not  suspected  of  partiality  in 
that  case,  has  concluded  the  latter  to  be  only  a  conseipiencc  of  the 
former.  For  reliii;ion,  says  he,' produced  irood  laws,  good  lausgood 
fortune,  and  good  fortune  a  good  end  in  whatever  they  undert(M>k. 
Nor,  perhaps,  has  he  strained  the  panegyric  much  too  high,  when 
he  tells  us,  that,  for  several  ages  together,  never  v  as  the  fear  of 
God  n\(M*e  eminently  conspicuous  than  in  that  republic.''  It  was 
this  consideration  which  matle  t)ie  great  8t.  Austin  observe,'  that 
God  wouUl  not  give  heaven  to  the  Uomans,  because  they  w  ere  hea- 
thens;  but  he  gave  them  the  empire  of  the  world,  because  they 
were  virtuous.  And,  indeed,  in  their  more  general  virtues,  their 
practice  inclined  rather  to  the  excess  than  the  defect :  Thus  were 
they  devout  to  superstition  ;  valiant  to  a  contempt  of  life,  and  an 
inconsiderate  courting  of  danger;  frugal  and  temperate  in  the  first 
ages,  to  a  voluntary  abstinence  from  agreeable  pleasures  and  con- 
veniences ;  constant,  several  times,  to  the  occasion  of  their  own 
ruin,  and  rather  rigorous  than  just.  A  tedious  account  of  the  Decii, 
Regulus,  Fabricius,  Curius,8c3evola,  <5J*c.  would  be  needless  even  to 
a  school-boy,  who  is  seldom  unfurnished  with  a  stock  of  such  histories. 

But  we  must  by  no  means  omit  a  most  noble  saying  of  Cicero  to 
this  purpose,  in  his  oration  about  the  answer  of  the  Aruspices  : 
Quatn  voluiniis  licet,  Patres  Cunscrlpii,  nos  amemu^:  tame n  nee  nU" 


]nero  Ifnpanos,  nee  robore  GaJIos,  nee  caUhJltate  Fcpnos,  nee  arltbtts 
Gnecos  ;  nee  den'ujue  hoc  ipso  hiijus  gentia  et  feme  domestico  ncitivo- 
qite  aenau  Ilu/oa  ipsos  et  Latinos  ;  sed  pietate  ac  re/igionCy  atque  Jmr 
una  sapientia,fjttod  Deonan  inunnrtalium  yvti nine  omnia  rege  guber- 
narique  perspexinufSy  oinnes  gentcs  nationesque  snperavimus. 

Hut  it  will  naturally  be  objected,  that  whatever  harangues  we  make 
npon  tiie  justice,  temperance,  and  other  celebiated  virtues  of  the  old 
Jlomans,  they  at  last  degenerated  into  the  most  luxurious  and  extra- 
vagant people  in  the  world.  Every  page  of  their  own  satirists  is  a 
very  good  argument  for  this  opinion ;  besides  the  numerous  com- 
))laints  of  their  historians  and  other  writers.  Now,  though  Lipsius 
has  undertaken  to  bring  them  oft'  clear  from  all  such  imputations, 
yet,  I  think,  we  must  be  forced  to  allow,  that  they  did  indeed  de- 
base the  noble  and  generous  spirit  of  their  ancestors ;  and  this  cor- 
ruption was,  without  doubt,  the  only  cause  of  the  declension  and  final 
ruin  of  the  empire.  But,  as  we  are  not  to  give  over  the  cause  of  vir- 
tue on  account  of  the  debauchery  of  latter  times,  so  we  have  little 
reason  to  exalt  the  eminent  qualities  of  the  old  Romans  to  so  high  a 
pitch  as  some  imagine.  There  is  no  necessity  of  making  a  hero  of 
e\Qvy  consul,  or  fancying  every  one  who  was  eminently  serviceable 
to  the  republic  to  have  been  a  person  of  consummate  virtue.  So 
that  when  we  meet  in  Roman  authors  with  such  extravagant  enco- 
miums of  their  ancestors,  we  may  conclude,  that  what  Horace  had 
observed  with  reference  to  poetry,  will  hold  altogether  as  well  in 
tjiis  case  ;  the  generality  of  people  being  so  strangely  transported 
with  the  love  and  admiration  of  antiquity,  that  nothing  was  more 
ii^ual  than  to  meet  w  ilh  such  a  person  as  he  describes : 

Qui  redit  ad  fcistos,  et  virtutem  H^stiinat  ajwi's, 
JMiraiurque  iiildl  nisi  quod  Libitina  sucravit. 

Tliat,  uhcn  he  tried  a  m.n's  pr- lence  to  fame, 
Uuns  to  his  chronicle  loliml  his  name  : 
Tliiuks  virtue  better  tor  its  ajje,  hkc  wine  ; 
And  only  likes  what  death  has  made  diyine. 

For  we  may  often  observe,  that  their  very  panegyrics  upon  the  ho- 
nest people  of  the  iirst  ages  of  the  commonwealth  represent  them 
rather  as  a  sort  of  rude,  unpolished  mortals,  than  as  persons  emi- 
nent for  any  noble  endowments.     So  Juvenal,  Sat.  14  : 

Saturubat  ^lebula  talis 


«  Machiavd'a  Discourse  o.i  l.ivy,  lb  1   chap  11. 

«  De  C'ivitat'e  Dei,  lib.  4.  chap..^. 


^  Ibid. 


Pattern  ipsutn  turbamqi/e  cas;t  ;  qua  f^ta  jacebat 
U-ror.  et  nfantes  ludebujit  quatuov,  unun 
Vernula  tres  dotnmi :  Sed  mugnis  fratribus  horuni 
A  SiTfjbe  vel  sulco  redeuntibus  aliera  cana 
Amplior,  et  grandes  fujuabant  pultibus  ollae^ 

This  little  spot  of  eanh,  well  till'd, 

A  numerous  family  with  pleniy  fill'd, 

The  good  old  man  and  thrift)  housewife  spent 

Their  duys  in  peace,  and  fatten'd  with  content ; 


11 


g2  OF    THE    RELIGION    OF 

Knj(»}e(l  the  dri'^s  onitc,  ;«n(I  luM  to  sec 

A  loiij^-<h  sctiulm^  lio:*lUirul   proi^ciiy. 

'I'hc  inCM  were  J.»slnoi»*d  in  a  larj^ur  mould  : 

'I'lic  woinni  i\{  tor  lai)Our,  bi^  aud  t»oKl. 

<i'^niti<-.  liiiuU,  us  soon  as  work  w.is  ilotjp, 

To  iheir  luii^t-  pois  ot  l)oilini^  pulse  vvoiiM  run, 

Icll  to,  Willi  c:»^»  r  joy,  on  homely  t'o'xl. 

And  ihcir  large  vciiH  beat  strong  wiili  wliolesomc  blood. 

JOHN     ltUYD»;.V,  JUH, 

P*u(  IIk*  account  which  Peisius  gives  us  of  TiUis  Quintius,  the  old 
'  ouiitrj  dictator,  has  something  more  ridiculous  in  it: 

Undt  fi  nius   sulcoque  tt  i  ens  dentati'i    Qutnti. 
Qutvi.  ttr/jul'!  unit'  hoTtts  /}i,  t,Joreni  induii  uxofy 
lit   uu  uraira  domuin  Ltctur  tuiit   -     —  ' 

W.iere  KomuJus  w.tsbifd,  .md  Q.i:nlius  horn, 

\\  Itose  sinning  plongiisliarc  was  m  furrows  worn. 

Met  by  i>is  treriililing  Wife  returning  houic, 

And  rusiicjilv  io\  'd  as  chief  of  Itoinc. 

She  wiped  tlie  sweat  from  the  cJictaToi's  brow,  "^ 

And  o'er  his  iju-  k  his  robe  (hd  rudely  throw  ;  sniiinrv 

'J'h.    lictors  t)orc  in  slate  the  lor  I's  lrium[)tiaijt  plough.  J 

We  must  therefore  allow  every  aj^e  its  proper  character  and  com- 
mendation, and  conclu(h*  with  the  in;^enious  Monsieur  .St.  Evre- 
mont,  "  that  the  excellent  citizens  lived  amnuji;  the  ancient  J^)- 
mans,  and  the  most  accomplished  generals  among  the  latter."*' 


CHAPTER  IJ. 

OF    THE    LUPERCI,    LUPEKCALIA,    kc.  ;    OF  THE  POTI'l  II  AND   PINARU  ; 

AND    OF    THE    AUVAL    BROTHERS. 


THE  places  of  wor^liip  having  been  already  described  the  chief 
subjects  that  still  remain,  relating  to  religion,  are  the  priests,  the 
sacrifices,  and  the  festivals  :  For  it  would  be  very  needless  and 
impertinent  to  enter  into  a  disfjuisition  alxmt  the  deities  ;  a  matter 
that  is  involved  in  so  many  endless  fictions,  and  yet  has  employed 
so  many  pens  to  explain  it. 

Litpcrci. — The  most  ancient  order  of  the  priests  were  the  Luperci, 
sacred  to  Pan,  the  god  of  the  country,  and  particularly  of  shepherds. 
They  had  tlieir  name  from  the  deity  they  attended  on,  called  in 
Greek  Ai/xa/c;  ;  probably  from  xujtof  a  wolf,  in  Latin  lupm ;  because 
the  chief  employment  of  Pan  was  the  driving  away  such  beasts  from 
tlie  sheep  that  he  protected. 

The  Lupcrcalia.'ds  Plutarch  observes,  appears  to  have  been  a  feast 

Pers.  Sat.  I.        «  Keflect.  opon  the  Genius  of  the  Iloman  People,  chap.  4. 


THE    ROMANS. 


83 


of  purification,  being  solemnized  on  the  Dies  Ncfasti,  or  non-court 
days,  of  the  month  (d' February,  which  derives  its  name  from /f/>n<o, 
to  purify  :  And  the  very  day  (d'  the  celebration  was  anciently  called 
Fibruacu,' 

The  cereuiuu^   was  very  singular  and  strange. 

In  the  first  place,  there  was  a  sacrifice  killed  of  goats  and  a  dog. 
TluMi  two  children,  noblemen's  sons,  being  broui^ht  thither,  some  of 
the  Luperci  stained  their  foreheads  with  the  bloodv  knife,  while 
others  wiped  itofi'with  locks  of  wool  dipped  in  milk:  the  boys  must 
always  laugh  after  their  foreheads  have  been  wiped  :  Tiiis  done, 
having  cut  the  goat-skins  into  thongs,  they  run  about  the  streets  all 
naked  but  their  middle,  and  lash  all  that  they  meet  in  their  proces- 
sion. The  young  women  never  take  any  care  to  avoiil  the  strokes, 
but  rather  otfer  themselves  of  their  own  accord,  fancying  them  to 
be  great  helpers  of  conception  and  delivery.^  'A1iey  run  naked  be- 
cause Pan  is  always  painted  so.  They  sacrificed  a  goat,  because  the 
same  diety  was  supposed  to  have  goat's  feet;  which  gave  occasion 
to  his  common  epithet  of  Capripis.  As  for  the  dog  we  meet  with  in 
the  sacrifice,  it  was  added  as  a  necessary  companion  of  a  shepherd, 
and  because  of  the  natural  antipathy  between  them  and  wolves. 

Some  have  fancied  with  Plutarch,  that  these  Lupercalia  were  in- 
stituted in  honour  of  the  wolf  that  preserved  Romulus  and  Remus; 
others  carry  their  original  nmch  higher,  and  tell  us,  that  they  were 
brought  into  Italy  by  Evander,  before  the  time  of  .Eneas. 

There  were  two  companies  (d'the  Luperci,  the  Fabiani  and  Quinc- 
tiliani ;  one  for  Romulus,  the  other  for  Remus :  they  took  their  names 
from  Fabius  and  Quinctilius,  two  of  their  masters  or  chief  priests.^ 
Dion  Cassius  tells  us,  that  a  third  sort  of  priests,  designed  for  the 
celebration  of  the  Lupercalia,  were  instituted  bv  the  senate  to  the 
honour  of  Julius  CiEsar.' 

SuetoniusJ  reckons  the  Lupercalia  among  the  ancient  rites  and 
ceremonies  restored  by  Augustus  ;  and  Onuph.  Panvinius  assures  us 
they  continued  in  Rome  till  the  time  of  the  emperor  Anastasius. 

Potitii  and  Pinanl. — The  Potitii  and  Pinarii  were  of  equal  anti- 
quity with  the  former.  They  owe  their  institution  to  the  same  au- 
thor, upon  the  following  account : 

After  the  killing  of  Cacus,  a  giant  that  had  stole  some  of  Hercules's 
cattle,  the  booty  that  he  brought  through  Italy,  from  Spain,  the 
shepherds  and  ignorant  people  of  the  country,  gathering  in  great 
ilocks  about  the  stranger,  at  last  brought  him  before  Evander.  The 
king,  after  examination,  finding  him  to  be  in  all  respects  the  same 


^  Plutarch,  in  Romul.  ?•  Ibid. 

■'  Sext.  Pomp.  Fcstus,  et  Ovid.  Fast. 


J  Ibid  44. 

'  In  Augusit.  chap.  31. 


84 


OF  THE    RELIGION  Ol 


person  tliat  his  niothor,  the  prophetess  Carincnta,  hand  lold  liini 
j<houl(I  come  into  Italy,  and  be  alteruards  a  j;i;od,  nnmecLatei^  erect- 
ed an  altar  to  Ids  honour,  and  olVered  for  his  sacrifice  a  vounj;  bul- 
lock  fhat  never  bore  the  yoke;  orihiining,  that  the  same  ceremony 
should  be  repeated  in  a  solemn  manner  every  year.  J'he  pert(Mm- 
ance  ul'  these  rites  he  committed  to  the  care  of  the  Fotitii  and  Pina- 
rii,  two  of  the  noblest  fandlies,  and  of  the  best  repute  in  tliose  parts. 
There  i>;oes  a  story,  that  the  Pmai  ii  happening  to  come  too  late  to 
the  sacrifice,  so  as  to  lose  their  share  in  the  entrails,  they  were,  by 
way  of  punishment,  (lebarred  fron»  ever  tasting  them  for  the  future; 
and  hence  some  derive  their  name  from  w«<r«r,  hunger.  But  tins  i 
take  to  be  but  a  trininjc  fancy;  for  we  may  as  well  derive  Potitii 
from  potiri,  because  they  enjoyed  the  entrails,  as  Pinarii  from  9r»*»«, 
because  they  wanted  tijem. 

We  meet  with  something  very  remarkable  of  the  Potitii  in  Livy,*^ 
and  Valerius  Maximus  :' 

'I'hat  when,  upon  application  made  to  Appius  Claudius  the  ceii- 
a(»r,  they  got  leave  to  have  their  hereditary  ndnistry  discharged  by 
servants,  in  the  compass  of  one  veai"  ihi^  whole  family  was  entirely 
extinct,  though  no  less  than  thirty  (d'them  were  lusty  young  men; 
and  Appius  Claudius  lo>t  !iis  eyes,  as  a  judgment  for  his  part  in  the 
olVence. 

Acca  Laurenlia,  Romulu-'s  nur^e,  had  a  custom  once  a  year  to 
make  a  solemn  sacrifice  for  a  blessing  upon  tlie  fields;  her  twelve 
sons  assistinij;  her  always  in  the  solemnirv.  At  last  she  had  the  ill 
fortune  to  lose  one  of  her  sons;  when  Romulus,  to  shew  his  grati- 
tude and  respect,  olVered  himself  to  till  up  the  number  in  his  room, 
and  gave  the  company  the  name  of  IVa/ra  Arvuks  This  order  was 
m  great  repute  at  Rome ;  they  held  the  dignity  always  for  their 
lives,  and  ni^ver  lost  it  upon  account  of  imj)risonment,  banishment,  or 
any  other  accident.'"  They  wore  on  their  heads,  at  the  time  of  their 
solemnity,  crowns  made  of  ears  of  corn,  upon  a  tradition  that  Lau- 
rentia  at  first  presented  Romulus  with  such  an  one.  Some  will 
have  it  that  it  was  their  business  to  take  care  of  the  boundaries, 
and  the  divisions  of  lands,  and  to  decide  all  controversies  that  might 
happen  about  them  ;  the  processions  or  perambulations  made  under 
their  guidance  being  termed  Jliubarvulla.  Others  make  a  dii^'erent 
order,  instituted  for  that  puopose,  and  called  Soilaks  ^^na/cs,  on 
the  same  account  as  the  Frutre^  Annies, 


Mb.  1.  chap.  1. 


"^  Phn.  lib.  ir.  chap.  2. 
••  Pom'),  l^jel.  dc  Saccnj 


THE    ROMANS. 


85 


CIIAPTEM  i:i, 


OF     llIK    ALC.IUS,    AVCiL'RIKS,     cJ'C. 

THK  invention  of  soothsaying  is  generally  attribut«Ml  to  the  Chal- 
deans ;  from  tliem   the  art  passed   to  the  Grecians  ;  the  Grecians 
delivered  it  to  the  'l'uscans,and  they  to  the  Latins  and  tiie  Romans. 
The  name  of  Augurs  is  derived  by  some,  ub  avium  gestu  ;  by  others, 
ub  avium  i^arritu  ;  either  from  the  motion  and  actions,  or  from  the 
chirping  and  cliattering  of  birds.     Romulus  was  himself  an  extraor- 
dinary proficient  in  this  art,    and  therefore,  a^  he  divided  the  city 
into  three  tribes,  so  he  constituted  three  Augurs,  one  for  every  tribe. 
There  was  a  fourth  added  some  time  after,  probably  by  Servius  Tul- 
lius,  who  increased  the  tribes  to  that  number.     These  four  bein;r  all 
cho."5en  out  of  the  Patricii  or  nobility,  in  the  year  of  the  city  454,  the 
Tribunes  of  the  people,  with  much  difficulty,  procured  an  order,  that 
Wm"  persons  to  be  elected  out  of  the  commons,  should  be  added  to 
the  college.''     Afterwards,  Sylla  tlie  Dictator,  A.  U.  C.  671,  made 
the  number  up  fifteen.       'J'he  eldest  of  these  had  the  command  of 
the  rest,  and  was  honoured  with  the  title  of  Jift^'id/er  Coilegii, 

Tlieir  business  was  to  interpret  dreams,  oracles,  prodigies,  kc.and 
to  tell  whether  any  action  should  be  fortunate  or  prejudicial  to  any 
particular  persons,  or  to  the  whole  commonv.ealth.  Upon  this  ac- 
count, they  very  often  occasioned  the  displacing  of  magistrates,  the 
deferring  of  public  assemblies,  ^'c.  vvlienever  the  omens  proved 
unlucky. 

Before  we  proceed  to  the  several  kinds  of  auguries,  it  may  not  be 
improper  to  give  an  account  of  the  two  chief  terms  by  which  they 
are  distinguished  in  authors,  dextra  and  sinistra.  These  being  dif- 
ferently applied  by  the  Greeks  and  Latins,  and  very  often  by  the 
Latins  themselves,  (who  sometimes  speak  agreeably  to  the  Grecian 
customs,  sometimes  according  to  their  own,)  have  given  occasion  to 
many  mistakes,  which  may  be  all  cleared  up  by  this  easy  observa- 
tion; that  the  Greeks  and  Romans  both  deriving  the  happiness  of 
their  omens  from  the  eastern  quarter,  the  former  turned  towards 
the  north,  and  so  had  the  east  on  the  right  hand  ;  the  latter  towards 
the  south,  and  therefore  had  the  east  on  tlieir  left.  Vide  Bullerh- 
^cr,  de  Augur,  et  Auspic,  1.  2.  c.  2. 
There  are  five  sorts  of  auguries  mentioned  in  authors. 
\,  From  the  appearances  in  heaven;  as  thunder,  lightning,  c6- 


'  Plutarch,  ill  Uomul,- 
«  l.iv.  lib.  10. 


1  Floras  Epitom.  Liv  lib.  89. 
-   Alex.  aD.  Alex.  lib.  5.  ciiap.  19. 


x^ 


S6 


OF    THL    RELIGION    OF 


THE  ROMANS. 


87 


mets,  and  other  meteors.  As  suppose  of  thunder,  whether  it  came 
from  the  right  or  the  left ;  whether  the  number  of  strokes  were  even 
or  o(hl,  ^-c.     Only  the  master  of  the  college  could  take  this  sort  of 

augury." 

2.  Fronj  birds  ;  whence  they  had  the  names  of  Auspices,  from  avis 
antl  specio.  Some  l)irds  furnish  them  with  observations  from  their 
chattering  and  singing,  others  from  their  flying.  The  former  they 
called  oscines,  the  \Merpr,Tpet€fi,  Of  the  first  sort  were  crows,  pies, 
owls,  Sec;  of  the  other  eagles,  vultures,  buzzards,  and  the  like. 

For  the  taking  of  both  these  sorts  of  auguries,  the  observer  stood 
upon  a  tower  with  his  head  covered,  in  a  gown  peculiar  to  his  oftice, 
called  Lxna,  and  turning  his  face  towards  the  east,  marked  out  the 
heavens  into  four  templa or  quarters,  with  his  Lituus,ashort  straight 
rod,  only  a  little  turning  at  one  end :  this  done,  he  staid  waiting  tor 
the  omen ;  which  never  signified  any  thing,  unless  confirmed  by 
another  of  the  same  sort. 

3.  From  chickens  kept  in  a  coop  or  pen  for  this  purpose.  The 
manner  of  divining  from  them  was  as  follows:  betimes  in  the  morn- 
in<^  the  Augur  that  was  to  make  the  observation,  called  from  hence 
Pullarius,  (though  perhaps  the  keeper  of  the  chickens  had  rather  tiiat 
name,)  in  the  first  place  commanding  a  general  silence,  ordered  the 
pen  to  be  opened,  and  threw  down  a  handful  of  crumbs  or  corn.  It 
the  chickens  did  not  immediately  run  fluttering  to  the  meat;  if  they 
scattered  it  with  their  wings ;  if  they  went  by  without  taking  notice 
of  it,  or  if  they  flew  away,  the  omen  was  reckoned  unfortunate,  and 
to  portend  nothing  but  danger  or  mischance;  but  if  they  leaped  pre- 
sently out  of  the  pen,  and  fell  to  so  greedily,  as  to  let  some  of  their 
meat  drop  out  of  their  mouths  upon  the  pavement,  there  was  all  the 
assurance  in  the  world  of  happiness  and  success,'  this  augury  was 
called  Tripudiiun,  quasi  Terripavium,  from  striking  the  earth  ;  tlie 
old  word  pavire  signifying  as  much  nsfcnre.  We  meet  with  Tri- 
imdlum  Solistimum,  and  Tripvdium  Soniviuw,  in  Festus,  both  de- 
rived from  the  crumbs  falling  to  the  ground. 

4.  From  beasts.  These,  as  Rosiims  reckons  them  up,  werewolves, 
foxes,  goats,  heifers,  asses,  rams,  hares,  weasels,  and  mice.  The 
treneral  observations  about  them  were,  whether  they  appeared  in  ii 
strange  place,  or  crossed  the  way;  or  whether  they  run  to  the  right 

or  the  left,  cj'c.  ,    ,  ,  • 

5.  The  last  sort  of  divination  was  from  what  they  called  Dirx,  or 
unusual  accidents  to  any  person  or  place  ;  sneezing,  stumbling,  see- 
ing apparitions,  hearing  strange  voices,  the  falling  of  salt  upon  the 


table,  the  spilling  of  wine  upon  one*s  clothes,  the  meeting  a  wolf,  a 
fox,  a  hare,  a  bitch  with  whelps,  Sfc, 

We  may  observe,  that  though  any  augur  might  take  an  observa- 
tion ;  yet  the  judging  of  the  omen  was  left  to  the  decision  of  the 
whole  college." 

Cicero  has  sufficiently  exposed  these  auguries,  especially  that 
about  the  chickens,  in  his  second  book  of  divination. 

The  learned  Mr.  ().  W.  has  taken  notice,  that  the  emperors  as- 
sumed the  office  of  augurs  as  well  as  of  pontift's,  as  appears  from  se- 
veral coins  of  Julius,  Augustus,  Vespasian,  Verus,  &c.  which  have 
the  Augur's  ensigns  upon  them. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

OF    THE    ARUSPICES    AND    POXTIFICES. 

THE  Aruspices  had  this  name  ab  aris  aspiciendis,  from  looking 
upon  the  altars;  as  ab  extis  inspicietidis,  they  were  called  Extis- 
pices ;  they  owe  their  original  to  Romulus,  who  borrowed  the  in- 
stitution from  the  Tuscans.  The  Tuscans  received  it,  as  the  ge- 
neral tradition  goes,  from  a  boy  that  they  strangely  ploughed  up 
out  of  the  ground,  who  obliged  them  with  a  discovery  of  all  the 
mysteries  belonging  to  this  art.^  At  first  only  the  natives  of  Tus- 
cany exercised  this  office  at  Rome ;  and  therefore  the  senate  made 
an  order,  that  twelve  of  the  sons  of  the  principal  nobility  should  be 
sent  into  that  country  to  be  instructed  in  the  rites  and  ceremonies 
of  their  religion,  of  which  this  secret  was  a  chief  part.^  The  busi- 
ness of  the  Aruspices  was  to  look  upon  the  beasts  oflfered  in  sacri- 
fice, and  by  them  to  divine  the  success  of  any  enterprise.  They 
took  their  observations  from  four  appearances : 

1 .  From  the  beasts  before  they  were  cut  up. 

2.  From  the  entrails  of  those  beasts  after  they  were  cut  up. 

3.  From  the  flame  that  used  to  rise  when  they  were  burning. 

4.  From  the  flower  or  bran,  from  the  frankincense,  wine  and  wa- 
ter, that  thev  used  in  the  sacrifice. 

In  the  beasts,  before  they  were  cut  up,  they  took  notice,  whether 
they  were  forcibly  dragged  to  the  altar  ;  whether  they  got  loose  out 
of  the  leader's  hands ;  whether  they  escaped  the  stroke ;  or  bounded 


Alex,  ab   Ale^.  lib.  *».  chap.  19. 


Idem,  lib.  9.  chap.  29. 


"  Idem,  lib.  1.  chap.  29. 
*  Cicero  de  Div.  lib.  2. 


'  Idem,  de  Div.  lib.  1. 


4}|}^ 


88 


OI     TIIL    RI-LIOION    OI 


THE   ROMANS. 


SQ 


up,  and  roared  vorv  loud  when  tlioy  rerolved  it:  uhetljcr  llioy  died 
witli  a  '^fvM  dea!  of  ddliculty ;  all  wliuli,  with  several  other  omens, 
were  rounted  unfoitunate  :  Or  whether,  on  the  other  side,  they  fol- 
lowed the  leader  withimt  compulsion  ;  received  the  blow  without 
struj'-iiiiuff  and  resistance;  whether  thev  bled  easilv,  and  sent  out  n 
great  (|uantity  (d"  blood,  which  gave  ecjuid  assuiance  of  a  prosjMMous 
event. 

In  the  beast  when  cut  up,  they  observed  the  colour  of  the  parts, 
and  whether  any  were  wantinj!;.  A  double  liver  was  counted  highly 
unfortunate  ;  a  little,  or  lean  heart,  was  always  uiducky  ;  if  the  heart 
was  wliollv  missinjr,  nothing  could  be  thoui^ht  more  fatal  and  dread- 
ful, as  it  happened  in  two  oxen  toi!;ether  oiVfred  by  Jullut*  Cicsar,  a 
lilt.e  before  his  murder  ;  if  the  entrails  fell  out  of  the  priest's  hands ; 
if  they  were  besmeared  more  than  ordinary  with  blood  ;  if  they  were 
of  a  pale  livid  colour,  they  por  ended  sudden  danger  and  ruin. 

Ah  to  tiie  iiame  of  the  sacrifice,  it  funii.^hed  them  with  a  good 
omen,  if  it  gathered  up  violently,  and  |»resently  consumed  the  sacri- 
fice; if  it  was  clt'ar,  pure,  and  tr.insj)arent,  withcmt  any  mixture  of 
smoke,  and  not  discoloured  witli  red,  j)ale,  or  blac  k  ;  if  it  was  cjuiet 
and  calm,  not  sparkling  or  crackling,  but  run  uj)  directly  in  the 
shape  of  a  pyramid.  On  tiic  contrary,  it  always  portended  misfor- 
tunes, if  at  lirst  it  retiuired  much  pains  to  light  it;  if  it  did  not 
burn  u[)right,  but  rolled  into  circles  and  left  void  spaces  between 
them  ;  if  it  did  not  presently  catch  hold  on  the  whole  sacrifice,  but 
crept  up  by  degrees,  from  (me  part  to  another  :  if  it  happened  to  be 
spread  about  by  the  wind,  or  to  be  put  out  by  sudden  rain,  or  to 
leave  any  part  unctmsumed. 

In  the  meal,  frankincense,  wine  and  water,  they  were  to  observe, 
wiiether  they  had  their  due  quantity,  their  proper  taste,  colour  and 
siiK'il,  tyc. 

'I'here  were  sever.il  lesser  signs  which  supplied  them  with  con- 
jectures, too  insignificant  to  be  here  mentioned. 

Most  of  those  ill  omens  are  hinted  at  bv  Virj^il,  Geor.  3.  v.  486. 

Siipc  in  honnrp  /)t\.m  vierlio  stans  haatia  ad  aram, 
JjiUici  tlum  litre  ^  cti  cunuUitu-  tnful.i  vttta. 
Inter  ciinctaii  tn  ctutdit  muribitmlu  niiiifttros. 
»'lut  m  tjuani  fc^ro  mactuVi-rat  aittc  s.ivrdos, 
Jhdc  iic(jue  inipos  tis  a>  dent  ulturia  fid-  ts 
JVt'C  rexpotis  ■  /Hjtest  cunsulius  leddcrc  nit  as  ■ 
Jlc  VI  V  o  ppusiti  tiiiguntur  .tunguine  cu/triy 
tSummuqut  jejuna  sanie  infuscutur  arena. 

Tue  M(  iMii  ox  that  was  i'ov  ahars  pressrd, 

Tnnniifd  with  wl.itr  ribbons,  ami  with  garlands  dressed, 

Sih.k  of  himself  \\ilii<»ut  liie  i;ods  command, 

Pit  Ncntiiig  llie  slow  sacrilif-er's  hand  ; 

Or,  hy  >he  wooh\  buiclifrithe  fril. 

The  inspected  entrails  could  no  fule  foretell  : 


Snr  laid  on  altars,  did  pure  fltmfs  arise, 

Hu'  clouds  of  s'noiddrinp:  smoki-  forbad  the  sacrifice  ; 

S(  arccly  the  kiiifV  was  red'Iened  with  h:s  j^nre, 

Or    lit'  b!a(  k  poison  stained  the  sandy  floor.  i»iiTi)r.v. 

Yet  the  business  of  the  Aruspices  was  not  restrained  to  the  altars 
and  >acrifices,  but  they  had  an  equal  right  to  the  explaining*-  all 
other  portents  and  monsters.  Hence  we  find  them  often  consulted 
by  the  senate  on  extraordinary  occasions:  or  if  the  Roman  Arus- 
pices lay  under  a  disrepute,  others  were  sent  for  out  of  Tuscany, 
where  this  craft  mostly  ilourisod,  as  it  was  first  invented. 

The  college  of  Aruspices,  as  well  as  those  of  the  other  religious 
orders,  had  their  particular  registers  and  records,  such  as  the  memo- 
rials of  thunders  and  lightenings,  the  Tuscan  histories,  and  the  like. 

'I'here  are  but  two  accounts  of  the  derivation  of  the  name  of  the 
Pontifices,  and  both  very  uncertain  ;  either  from  pons,  and  fcfccrc ; 
because  they  first  built  the  Sublician  bridge  in  Rome,  and  had  the 
care  of  its  repair;  or  from  posse  and /accrc,  where  farcere  must  be 
interpreted  to  signify  the  same  as  offerrc  and  sacnficarc.  The  first  of 
these  is  the  most  received  opinion:  and  y^t  Plutarch  himself  hath 
called  it  absurd.^  At  the  first  institution  of  them  by  Numa,  the 
number  was  confined  to  four,  who  were  constantly  chosen  out  of  the 
nobility,  till  the  year  of  the  city  454,  when  fife  more  were  ordered 
to  be  added  of  the  commons,  at  the  same  time  that  the  Augurs  re- 
ceived the  like  addition.  And  a-  the  Augurs  had  a  colle^e^  so  the 
Pontifices  too  were  settled  in  such  a  body.  And  as  Syila  afterwards 
added  seven  Augurs,  so  he  added  as  many  Pontifices  to  the  college : 
the  first  eiglit  bearing  the  name  ii{  Pontifices  uufjorcs,  and  the  rlst 
of  ininores. 

The  olficc  of  the  Pontifices,  was  to  give  judgment  in  all  causes 
relating  to  religion  ;  to  in<iuire  into  the  lives  and  manners  of  the  infe- 
rior priests,  and  to  punish  them  if  they  saw  occasion  ;  to  prescribe 
rules  for  public  worship;  regulate  the  feasts,  sacrifices,  and  all  other 
.acred  institutions.  Tully,  in  his  oration  to  them  for  his  liouse,  tells 
them,  tiuit  the  honour  and  safety  of  the  commonwealth,  the  liberty 
of  the  people,  the  houses  and  fortunes  of  the  citizens,  and  the  very 
gods  themselves,  were  all  entrusted  to  their  care,  and  depended 
wholly  on  their  wisdom  and  management. 

The  master  or  superintendant  of  the  Pontifices  was  one  of  the 
most  honourable  offices  in  the  commonwealth.  Numa,  when  he  in- 
stituted the  order,  invested  himself  first  with  his  dignity,  as  Plu- 
tarch informs  us;  though  Livy  attributes  it  to  another^'person  of  the 
same  name.     Festus's  definition  of  this  great  priest  is  Judex  atque 

'  Tn  Numa. 


90 


OF  THE  RELIGION  OF 


Arbiter  rennn  hinnanarum  divinarvmque,  the  Judge  and  Arbitrator 
of  divino  and  human  affairs.  Upon  this  account  all  the  em,,e,  »rs, 
after  the  example  ,.f  Julius  Csesar  and  Augustus,  either  actually 
took  upon  them  the  office,  or  at  least  used  the  name.  And  even 
the  Christian  emperors,  for  some  time,  retained  this  in  the  ord.na- 
ry  enumeration  of  their  titles;  till  the  time  of  Gratian,  who  (as  wc 
learn  from>  Zosimus)  absolutely  refused  it. 

Volvdore  Vir-il'  does  not  (|uestion  but  this  was  an  infallible  omen 
of  the'authoiity'which  the  bishop  of  Rome  enjoys  to  this  day.  un- 
der the  name  of  Pontifcx  Maximus. 


CHAPTER  V. 

OF    THE    FLAMINES,    REX    SACRORUM,    SALII,    FESCIALES,  AND 

SODALES. 

• 

THE  name  of  the  Flamincs  is  not  much  clearer  than  the  former. 
Plutarch  makes  it  a  corruption  of /«7«m».e«  from  pikm  a  sort  of  cap 
proper  to  the  order.  Varro,  Festus.  and  ^^^^-^l'^f^'''\^^  ^°": 
traction  .^fdamine.,  h.^fdum  ;  and  tells  us,  that  finding  their  caps 
too  heavy  and  troublesome,  they  took  up  a  lighter  fashion,  on  y  bind- 
in.  a  parcel  of  threa.l  about  their  heads.  Others  derive  the  word 
iZJiymina  orjla.uum,  a  sort  of  turban,  which  they  make  them  to 
have  worn ;  though  this  generally  signifies  *  ^^on^^"  «  veil.  Ros  nus 
and  Mr.  Dodwell  declare  f..r  the  second  of  these  opinions  ;  Polydorc 
Virgil  has  given  his  judgment  in  favour  of  the  third.- 

Numa  at  first  discharged  several  offices  of  re  ig.on  h.msel  and 
designed  that  all  his  successors  should  do  the  like  ;  but  becau  e  he 
thought  the  greatest  part  of  them  would  partake  more  of  K"-.'"  s 
genius  than  his  own.  and  that  their  being  engaged  m  -^Hike  enter 
nri-^es  mi.^ht  incapacitate  them  for  this  function,  he  instituted  these 
TxZZ\.  take  care  of  the  same  services,  which  by  right  belonged 

'"  The  oSihree  constituted  at  first  were  Flamen  Dialis.  Martialis 
and  Quirinalis.     The  first  was  sacred  to  Jupiter ;  and  a  person  of 
the  lUghost  authority  in  the  commonwealth      He  was  oW.gedto  ob- 
serve Several  superstitious  restraints,  as  well  as  honoured  -th     -r» 
eminent  privileges,  beyond  other  officers ;  which  are  reckoned  up  at 


y  H  stor.  lib.  4. 

•  De  reruin  invent,  hb.  4.  chap.  14- 


a  De  rer.  invent,  lib.  4.  chap.  14. 
b  Liv  lib.  1. 


THE   ROMANS. 


91 


large  by  Gllius.'^  The  same  author  tells  us,  that  the  wife  of  this 
Flamen  had  the  name  of  Flaminica,  and  was  intrusted  with  the  care 
of  several  ceremonies  peculiar  to  her  place. 

But  to  be  sure,  the  greatness  of  the  dignity  was  sufficiently  dimi- 
nislK'd  'n\  succeding  times  ;  otherwise  we  cannot  imagine  that  Julius 
Caesar  should  have  been  invested  with  it  at  seventeen  years  of  age 
as  Suetonius'  informs  us  he  was,  or  that  Sylla  should  have  so  easily 
driven  hini  from  his  office  and  from  his  house. 

The  other  two  were  of  less,  yet  of  very  eminent  authority ;  ordain- 
ed to  inspect  the  rites  of  Mars  and  Romulus.  All  three  were  chosen 
out  of  the  nobility.  Several  priests  of  the  same  order,  though  of  in- 
ferior power  and  dignity,  wfM'e  added  in  later  times ;  the  whole  num- 
ber being  generally  computed  at  fifteen.  Yet  Fenestella  (or  the  au- 
thor under  his  name)  assures  us  from  Varro,  that  the  old  Romans 
had  a  particular  Flamen  for  every  deity  they  worship.*" 

Though  the  Flamen  Dialis  discharged  several  religious  duties  that 
properly  belonged  to  the  kings,  yet  we  meet  with  another  officer  of 
greater  authority,  who  seems  to  have  been  purely  designed  for  that 
employment :  and  this  was  the  Rex  Sacrifmdus,  or  Sacrorum,  Dio- 
nysius  gives  us  the  original  of  this  institution  as  follows  :  **  Because 
the  kings  had  in  a  great  many  respects  been  very  serviceable  to  the 
state,  the  establishers  of  the  commonwealth  thought  it  verv  proper 
to  keep  always  the  name  of  king  in  the  city.  Upon  this' account 
they  ordered  the  Augurs  and  Pontifices  to  choose  out  a  fit  person, 
who  should  engage  never  to  have  the  least  hand  in  civil  aftairs,  but 
devote  himself  wholly  to  the  care  of  the  public  worship  and  ceremo- 
nies of  religion,  with  the  title  of  Rex  Sacrorum. "'^  And  Livy  in- 
forms us,  that  the  office  of  Rex  Sacrorum,  was  therefore  made  infe- 
rior to  that  of  Pontifex  Maximus,  for  fear  that  the  name  of  king, 
which  liad  been  formerly  so  odious  to  the  people,  might  for  all  this 
restraint,  be  still,  in  some  measure,  prejudicial  to  their  liberty.^. 

.S«/n.— The  original  uf  Sr  ii  maybe  thus  gathered  from  Plutarch. 
In  the  eighth  year  of  Numa's  reign,  a  terrible  pestilence  spreading 
itself  over  Italy,  among  other  places  miserably  infested  Rome.  The 
citizens  were  almost  grown  desperate,  when^hey  were  comforted 
on  a  sudden  by  the  report  of  a  brazen  target,  which  (they  say)  fell 
into  Nuiiia's  hands  from  heaven.  The  king  was  assured  by  the  con- 
ference he  maintained  with  the  nymph  Egeria  and  the  muses,  that 
the  target  was  sent  from  the  gods  for  the  cure  and  safety  of  the  city  ; 
and  this  was  soon  verified  by  the  miraculous  ceasing  of  the  sick- 
ness. They  advised  him,  too,  to  make  eleven  other  targets,  so  like 


'  Noct.  Alt.  lib.  10.  chap.  15. 
'  Chap.  1. 


«  De  Sacerdotlis,  chap.  5. 
^  Antiq.  lib.  5.        %  U\\  lib. 


92 


OF  Tlli:  RELIGION  Of 


. „  „,,;,  .li.ncu.ons  aiul  form  to  ti.e  original.  tl.U  ...  case  tl.e.c  should 
^  i..  of  stear...s  it  away,  tl.e  true  m.,l.t  ..ot  be  d..t..>,u.sl.ed 

!    Wo",:  fro...  tl.ose  vvhicl,  were  cou,.terfe.te.l ;  by  wh.cl.  mea..s  U 
lu   1  be  ...o.e  .liflicult  to  defeat  the  cou...els   o.  tate,  ...  wl.,cl,  . 
ee.   deter...i..ed.  that,  while  th.s  was  preserved.  .J.e  c.ty  sl...uld 
ve  hanny  and  victorious.    This  d.^col.  work  „,re  Ve.te.-.usMa- 
ius  v'ery  luckilv  perfor...ed,  a..d  ...ade  eleve..  others  that  N«...a 
Lself  could  ..ot  k..ow  f.o.u  the  f.rst.    They  were  worked  ...to  an 
val    for,u.  with  sevcal   folds  or  plaits  clos.n-^  one  ov^r  anothe  . 
They  exactly  f.tted  the  elbow  by  their  figure  •,  a>.d  were  thence  call- 
ed LylUu  IVo...  i.v.A..  wh.ch  sig..ifies  a  crooked  javehn;  o.-  ..o.u 
a.e  cui.it  (i>.<...)  that  part  of  the  ar.n  between  the  wr.^t  and  the  el- 
b„w    up....  which   thev  carried  the  Ancylia:''    For  tl.e   keep.ng  ot 
tho,e    Nu.na  instituted  an  o..ler  of  p.iests.  called  Said    a  .ulundo. 
,,„„  ieap.,,^  o.-  aa,.c.ng.  They  lived  all  i..  a  body,  a.id  co...posed  a 
collc^e  consisti..^  of  the   sa.ne    ..«...ber   of  ,ne..  w.tl.  the  bucklers 
which  they   p.ese.ve.l.     The   tl.,ee   se..io,s  governed  t'—   '  "^ 
who.n  the  f..st  had  the  na.i.e  of  1>.  xsul.  the  second  ot  \  ates.  a...l  the 
other  of  Magister.'     In  the  .nonth  of  Ma.ch   was  tl.e.r  g.ea    least, 
whe..  they  carried  their  sac.cd  cha.ge  about  the  c.ty.    At  th.s  pro- 
cessio,.  they  were  habited  i,.  a  short  scarlet  cassock    hav.ng  round 
,he.n  a  broad  belt  clasped  with  b.ass  buckles.     O.,  the.r  head  they 
wore  a  sort  of  copper  hel.nct.   In  this  ...anner  they  we..t  on  w.th  a 
nimble  .notion,  keepi..s  just  n,ea,u,es  with  their  feet.  a...l  de.non- 
strati..g  s.eat   st.e..gth  a.,d  agility  by  the   var.ous  a..d  ha..dso...e 
turns  o^-  their  body.i    They  sung  all  alo..g  a  set  of  old  verses  called 
Cannen  ^ulaire  ;  the  origi..al  for..,  of  « hich  was  co.nposed  by  N u.na 
They  were  sac.ed  to  Mars  (the  ancylia,  or  targets   be.ng  pa.ts  ol 
.„)  who  f.o.n  then,  took  the  nau.e  of  Salisubsu  us.  A..d  there- 
fore, upon  accou..t  of  the  ext.ao,di..ary  noise  a..d  shak...g  that  they 
,„ade  i..  their  dances,  Catullus,  to  signify  a  stroi.g  bridge,  has  u.ed 

the  phrase. 

In  quo  vt'l  Salisuhsuli  sacra funto^ 
Unless  the  conjecture  of  Vo.sius  be  true,  that  Salisubsulus  is  here  a 
corruption  from  salii  ipsulU  ;  the  performers  in  those  dances  bearing 
uiththem,  an.ong  other  superstitious  trifles,  a  sort  ot  tun  plates 
worked  into  the  shapes  of  n.en  and  women,  which  they  called  ip.ile,, 
or  subsUes,  and  ipsul:..  or  subs^d..  Vpon  admitting  this  opm.on. 
Mars  must  lose  his  name  of  t^alisubsulus ;  and  Pacuvius  cannot  reueve 
him;  because  the  verse  with  this  word  m  it  commonly  cited  l.om 
that  old  poet,  is  thought  (by  Vossius  at  least)  to  be  a  mere   hctio. 

i.  iMntuich.  in  Numa.  '  Plutarch  in  Nun^. 

i  Alex,  ub   \Kv   lih.  1.  chap.  26.  '  Calull.  Cuim.  17. 


THE    ROMANS. 


9:^ 


of  Muretus's,  who  was  noted  for  this  kind  of  forgery.    See  Voss.  in 

Catull.p.  46. 

Though  tlie  month  of  March  (dedicated  to  that  god)  was  the  pro- 
per tinu-'for  carrying  about  the  ancylia  ;  yet  if  at  anytime  a  just  and 
lawful  war  had  been  proclaimed  by  order  of  the  senate,  against  any 
state  or  people,  the  Salii  were  in  a  solemn  manner  to  move  the  ancy- 
lia •  as  if  by  that  means  they  roused  Mars  from  his  seat,  and  sent 
him  out  to  the  assistance  of  their  arms.' 

Tullus  Mostilius  afterwards  increased  the  college  with  twelve 
more  Salii,  in  pursuance  of  a  vow  he  made  in  the  battle  with  the  Sa- 
i)ines.  And  therefore,  for  distinction's  sake,  the  twelve  first  were  ge- 
nerally called  Salii'Palatini,  fr(»m  the  Palatine  mountain,  whence  they 
began  their  procession  ;  the  other  Salii  Collini  or  Agonenses,  from 
the  Quirinal  hill,  sometimes  called  Mons  Agonalis,  where  they  had 
a  chapel,  in  one  of  the  highest  eminences  of  the  mountain.'" 

Alexander  ab  Vlexandro  has  observed,  that  the  entertainments  of 
these  priests  upon  their  solemn  festivals  were  exceeding  costly  and 
magnificent,  with  all  the  variety  of  music,  garlands,  perfumes,  ^c.  ;° 
and  tlierefore  Horace  uses  dupes  mliarea  for  delicate  meats,  as  he 
does  pontificum  ccrnse-  for  great  regalios. 

Feciaies.-^The  Feciales  Varro  derives  from  Jides,  because  they 
had  the  care  of  the  public  faith  in  leagues  and  contracts.  Others 
bring  the  word  a  fttdtre  faciendo,  on  the  same  account.  Their  ori- 
ginal! in  Italy  was  very  ancient.  Dionysius  Halicarn,  finds  them 
among  the  Aborigines,  under  the  name  of  c-Toicrc<?>ogo«,  Ubamiaiim 
fulorcs:  And  Virgil  intimates  as  much  in  several  places.  Numa 
first  instituted  the  order  at  Rome,'  consisting  of  twenty  persons,' 
chosen  out  of  the  most  eminent  families  in  the  city,  and  settled  in 
a  college.  It  is  probable  he  ranked  them  among  the  ofiicers  of  re- 
ligion, to  procure  them  the  more  deference  and  authority,  and  to 
make  their  persons  more  sacred  in  the  commonwealth. 

Their  ofilce  was  to  be  the  arbitrators  of  all  controversies  relating 
to  war  and  peace  ;  nor  was  it  lawful  on  any  account  to  take  up  arms 
till  they  had  declared  all  means  and  expedients  that  might  tend  to  an 
accommodation  to  be  insufficient.  In  case  the  republic  had  suffered 
any  injury  from  a  foreign  state,  they  despatched  these  Feciales,  who 
were  properly  heralds,  to  demand  satisfaction ;  who,  if  they  could 
procure  no  restitution  or  just  return,  calling  the  gods  to  witness 
against  the  people  and  country,  immediately  denounced  war  ;  other- 


J  Alex,  ab  Al'^x.  lib.  1.  chap.  26. 
™  DioMVS.  H:ilic.  lib.  3. 
•>  Gc:n.  Dier  hb   1.  chap.  6. 
'^  Lib.  1.  Od.  37. 


p  Lib.  1.  0.1.14. 

s  Dionys.  Liv. 

'  Alex  ab.  Akx.  lib.  5.  chap.  3. 


14 


94 


Ut    THE    RELIGION    Ok 


THE    ROMANS. 


y5 


wise  they  confirmed  the  alliance  that  liail  been  formerly  made,  or 
contracted  a  new  one.^  But  the  ceremonies  used  upon  both  these 
occasions,  will  fall  more  properly  under  another  head.  It  is  enough 
to  observe  here,  that  both  the  aftairs  were  managed  by  these  ofli- 
cers,  with  the  coFisent  of  the  senate  and  people. 

As  to  the  Pater  Patratus,  it  is  not  easy  to  determine  whether  he 
was  a  constant  officer,  and  the  chief  of  the  Feciales,  or  whether  he 
was  not  a  temporary  niaster,  elected  upon  account  of  making  a  peace 
or  denouncing  a  war,  which  were  both  done  by  him.  Rosinus  makes 
him  the  constant  governor  or  master  of  the  t'eciales ;  Fenestella  (or 
the  author  under  his  name)  a  distinct  olficer  altogether."  Pomponius 
Lxtus  and  Polydore  Viigil  tell  us,  that  he  was  only  chosen  by 
one  of  the  Feciales,  out  of  tlieir  own  body,  upon  such  occasions  as 
we  have  just  mentioned.  The  latter  opinion  may  be  defended  by  the 
authority  of  Livy,  who,  in  order  to  the  treaty  w ith  the  Albans  before 
the  triple  combat  of  the  Iloratii  and  Curiatii,  makes  one  of  the  Fe- 
ciales chosen  a  Pater  Patratus  to  perform  that  ceremony.*  The  per- 
son to  be  instrusted  with  the  olfue  must  have  been  one  who  had  a 
father  and  a  son  botli  alive  ;  and  therefore  Pater  Patratus  is  no  more 
than  a  mor.'  perfect  sort  of  father ;  as  they  imagined  him  to  be  whose 
own  father  was  still  living,  after  he  himself  had  been  a  father  for 
some  time.  Perhaps  too  they  might  fancy  him  to  be  the  fittest  judge 
in  artairs  of  such  consequence,  who  could  see  as  well  behind  as  be- 
fore him.y 

Though  the  members  of  any  collegiate  body,  and  particularly  the 
free  tradesmen  of  the  several  companies,  are  often  called  Sodales  ; 
yet  those  who  challenged  that  name  by  way  of  eminence,  were  reli- 
gious ofiiccrs,  instituted  io  take  care  of  the  festivals  and  annual  ho- 
nours of  great  persons  deceased.  The  first  of  this  order  were  the  80- 
daies  Titii,  created  to  supervise  the  solemnities  in  memory  of  Tatius 
the  8abine  kin^.  Tiberius  founded  a  college  of  the  same  nature,  and 
gave  the  members  the  title  of  Sodales  Augustales;  their  business 
was  to  inspect  the  rites  paid  to  Augutus  CcX^ar  after  his  death  ;  and 
to  perform  the  same  good  offices  to  the  whole  Julian  family,  as  the 
old  Sodales  Titii  ])reserved  the  sacred  memorials  of  all  the  Sabine 
race. 

Afterwards  we  meet  with  the  Sodales  Antoniniani,  Helviani,  Al- 
exandrini,  tj'c.  instituted  on  the  like  accounts,  but  so  restrained  to 

'   I'lutarcluin  Num.  w  Deinvt-nt.  rer.  lib.  4.  chap.  14. 

'  L»b.  3.  chap.  21.  x  Lib.  1.  chap.  24. 

"  De  Sacerdot.  Kom.  chap.  6.  y  Plutarch,  in  Question   KomaM. 
•  Ibid. 


the  service  of  the  particular  emperors,  that  the  Antoniniani,  for  ex- 
ample, were  divided  into  the  Pii,  Lucii,  Marci,  ^'c.  according  to  the 
prope    name  of  the  prince  on  whose  honours  they  were  to  attend. 
Vide  Dodwell.  Praclect.  1.  ad  Spartian.  Hadrian.  S.  5. 


CHAPTER  VI. 


ON    THE   VESTAL&. 


THE  institution  of  the  Vestal  Virgins  is  generally  attributed  to 
Numa;  though  we  meet  with  the  sacred  fire  long  before,  and  even 
m  the  time  of  i^^neas.  But  perhaps  Numa  was  the  first  who  settled 
the  order,  and  built  a  temple  to  the  Goddess  in  Rome.  Their  office 
was  to  attend  upon  the  rites  of  Vesta,  the  chief  part  of  it'  being  the 
preservation  of  the  holy  fire,  which  Numa,  fancying  fire  to  be  the 
first  principle  of  all  things,  committed  to  their  charge.  Ovid  tells 
us,  that  they  understood  nothing  else  but  fire  by  Vesta  herself: 

JMec  tu  uUud  Vestam  guiim  vivam  inielhge  Jiutnmain  ^ 
Thoudi  sometimes  he  makes  her  the  same  as  the  earth : 


•Tc/lus  Vestaqtie  iiuinen  idem  est. 


Polydore  Virgil  reconciles  the  two  names  by  observing,  that  fire, 
or  the  neutral  heat  by  which  all  things  are  produced,  is  inclosed  in 
the  earth. •* 

They  were  obliged  to  keep  this  fire  with  all  the  care  in  the  world ; 
and,  if  it  happened  to  go  out,  it  was  thought  impiety  to  light  it  at  any 
common  flame,  but  they  made  use  of  the  pure  and  unpolluted  rays 
of  the  sun.*^  Every  year,  on  the  first  of  March,  whether  it  had  gone 
out  or  not,  they  always  lighted  it  a-new.'  There  were  other  relics 
and  holy  things  under  their  care,  of  which  we  have  very  uncertain 
accounts ;  particularly  the  famous  Palladium  brought  from  Troy  by 
-/Eneas ;  for  Ulysses  and  Diomedes  stole  only  a  counterfeit  one,  a 
copy  of  the  other,  which  was  kept  with  less  care. 

Dionysius  and  Plutarch  assure  us,  that  Numa  constituted  only 
four  virgins  for  this  service  ;  and  that  the  same  number  remained 
ever  after,  And  therefore  a  great  antiquary  is  certainly  mistaken, 
when  he  makes  the  number  increased  to  twenty.^. 

They  were  admitted  into  this  society  between  the  years  of  six 


«  Virg.  iEneid.  lib.  2.  297. 

*  Pliitarch.  et  Ditnvsius. 

b  Fast.  6.  V.231. 

'■  Fas.-.  6.  V.  460. 

«*  De  InTent.  rer.  lib.  1.  chap.  14, 


*  Plutarch,  in  Numa. 

^  Alex,  ab  Alex.  lib.  v.  chap.  12.     Ma- 

cr(.b    Suturnrtl.  lib.  l.ciiap.  12. 

s  Alex,  ab  Akx.ibid. 


iMJBimiaC 


96 


OF    THE     RELIGION    OF 


and  ten;  and  were  not  properly  said  to  be  elected  or  created,  bat 
captx,  taken;  the  Pontifex  Maximiis  takinj^lier  that  lie  liked  by  the 
hand,  and  leadinj^  her,  as  it  were  by  force,  from  her  parents.'' 

The  chief  rules  prescribed  tiicni  by  their  founder,  were  to  vow 
the  strictest  chastity  for  the  spare  of  thirty  years.  The  first  ten 
they  were  only  novices,  obli«^ed  to  learn  the  ceremonies,  and  perfect 
themselves  in  the  duties  of  their  religion.  The  next  ten  years  they 
actually  discharu;ed  the  sacredotal  function;  and  spent  the  reniain- 
ini^  len  in  teaching;  and  instructing;  others.  After  this  term  was  com- 
pleated,  they  had  liberty  to  leave  the  order,  and  ch(»osc  any  condi- 
tion of  life  that  best  suited  with  their  inclinations;  though  this  was 
counted  unlucky,  and  therefore  seldom  put  in  practice.  Upon  com- 
mission of  any  lesser  faults,  they  were  punished  as  the  Pontifex  Maxi- 
nius  (who  had  the  care  of  them)  thought  fit.  Rut  if  they  broke  theii 
vow  of  virginity,  they  were  constantly  buried  alive  in  a  place  with- 
out the  city  wall,  alloted  for  that  particular  use,'  and  thence  called 
campus  selcratuSy  as  Festus  informs  us. 

But  this  severe  condition  was  recompensed  with  several  privileges 
and  prerogatives.  When  they  went  abroad,  they  had  the  fasces  car- 
ried before  them,'  a  consul  or  the  praetor  being  obliged  to  give  them 
the  way.*^  And  if  in  their  walk  they  casually  lighted  upon  a  male- 
factor leading  to  execution,  they  had  the  favour  to  deliver  him  from 
th^  hands  of  justice,  provided  they  made  oath  that  their  meetin 
was  purely  accidental,  without  any  compact  or  design.* 


CHAPTER  Ml. 


Of  THE  DUUMVIRI,  DECEMVIRI,  AM)  qUINDECEMVIRI,  KEEPERS  OF 
THE  SIBVLLIXE  WRITINGS;  AND  OF  THE  CORYBANTES,  OR  PRIESTS 
OF    CYBELE,  AND  THE   EPULONES. 


THE  first  of  these  orders,  famous  only  on  account  of  the  relics 
tliey  preserved,  owe  their  original  to  this  occasion : 

A  strange  old  woman  came  once  to  Tarcjuinius  8uj)erbus  with 
nine  books,  which  she  said  w  ere  the  oracles  of  the  Sibyls,  and  prof- 
fered to  sell  them.  But  the  king  making  some  scruple  about  \\u\ 
price,  she  went  away  and  burnt  three  of  them  ;  and  returning  with 
the  six,  asked  the  same  sum  as  before.     Tarquin  only  laughed  at 

''  A.  Gell.  lib.  1   chap.  12.  ^  Alcx.ab  Alex.  lib.  5.  chap.  1 ;. 

'   Plutarch,  in  Num.  i  Ibid.         '   Plutarch  in  Num. 


TH    EROMANS. 


9T 


the  humour ;  upon  which  the  old  w oman  left   him  once  more  ;  and 
after  she  had  burnt  three  others,  came  again  with  those  that  were 
left,  but  «itill  kept  to  her  old  terms.  The  king  began  now  to  wonder 
at  her  obstinacy,  and  thinking  there  might  be  something  more  than 
ordiiiarv  in  the  business,  sent  for  the  Augurs  to  consult  what  was 
to  be  done.  Thev,  when  their  divinaticms  were  performed,  soon  ac- 
quainted  him  what  a  piece  of  impiety  he  had  been  guilty  of,  by  re- 
fusin**- a  treasure  sent  to  him  from  heaven,  and  commanded  him  to 
o-ive  whatever  she  demanded  for  the  books  that  remained.    The  wo- 
man    received   her   monev,  and   delivered   the  writings,  and    onlv 
charging  them  by  all  means  to  keep  them  sacred,  immediately  van- 
ished.    Two  of  the  nobility  were  presently  after   chosen  to  be  the 
keepers  of  these  oracles,  which  were  laid   up  witli  all  in»aginable 
care  in  the  capitol  in  a  chest  under  ground.  They  could  not  be  con- 
sulted without   a  special   order  from  the   senate,  which  was  never 
granted  unless  upon  the  receiving  some  notable  defeat,  upon  the  ris- 
in«»'  of  anv  considerable  mutiny  or  sedititm  in  the  state  :  or  upon  some 
other  extraordinary  occasion ;"'  several  of  w  hich  we  meet  with  in 
Livy." 

The  number  of  priests,  in  this  as  in  most  other  orders,  was  several 
tinjes  altered.  The  Duumviri'^  continued  till  about  the  year  of  the 
city  388,  when  the  tribunes  of  the  people  preferred  a  law,  that  there 
should  be  ten  men  elected  for  this  service,  part  out  of  the  nobility, 
and  part  out  of  the  commons.  We  meet  with  the  Decemviri  all  along 
from  hence,  till  about  the  time  of  Sylla  the  dictator,  when  the  Quin- 
decemviri  occur;  which  addition  of  five  persons  may,  with  very  good 
reason,  be  attributed  to  him,  who  increased  so  many  of  the  other  or- 
ders. It  were  needless  to  give  any  farther  account  of  the  Sibyls,  than 
that  they  are  generally  agreed  to  have  been  ten  in  number;  for  which 
we  have  the  authority  of  Varro;  though  some  make  them  nine,  some 
four,  some  three,  and  some  only  one."  They  all  lived  in  dift'erent  ages 
ami  countries,  were  all  prophetesses;  and,  if  we  believe  the  common 
opinion,  foretold  the  coming  of  our  Saviour.  As  to  the  writing, 
Dempster  tells  us,  it  was  in  linen. t"  But  one  would  think  the  com- 
mon phiase  of  Folia  SihyU^,y  used  bv  Virgil,  Horace,  and  other  cred- 
ible authors,  should  argue,  that  thev  wrote  their  prophecies  on 
leaves  of  trees  ;  especially  if  we  consider  the  great  antiquity  which 
is  generally  allowed  them,  and  are  assured  at  the  same  time  bv 
Pliny,'»  that  this  was  the  oldest  w^ay  of  writing. 


•  They  had  the  common  name  of  Duumviri  {Decemviri,  or  Qu'indecemvirij 
Sacris  faciundis. 

'=>  Dionys.  Antiq.  lib.  4. 

"  Panlcularly  lib.  3.  chap.  10  lib.  5.  chap.  13  lib.  7.  chap.  28  lib.  4  chap.  21 . 
Dempster  ad  Hosin.  lib.  3.  chap.  24.  f  Ibid.  ^  Lib.  33.  chap.  11. 


96 


OF  THE    RELIGION  OF 


THE    ROMANS. 


9Si 


Solinus  acquaints  us,  tliat  these  books  which  Tarquin  brought  were 
burnt  m  the  conflagration  of  the  capitol,  the  year  before  S}  Has  dic- 
katorship.  Yet  there  were  others  of  their  inspired  writings,  or  at 
least  copies  or  extracts  from  them,  gathered  up  in  Greece  and  other 
parts,  upon  a  special  search  made  by  order  of  the  senate  ;  wliich 
were  kept  with  the  same  superstition  as  the  former,  till  about  the 
time  of  Theodosius  the  Great,  when,  the  greatest  part  of  the  senate 
having  embract'd  the  Christian  faith,  such  vanities  began  to  grow- 
out  of  fashion;  till  at  last  Stilicho  burnt  them  all,  under  Honorius, 
for  which  he  is  so  severely  censured  by  the  noble  poet  Rutilius,  in 
his  ingenious  Itinerary : 

Nee  tantum  Geficisgrassatus  ftrodifor  arniiSf 

^hite  SibtfUinn  Jata  cretnavit  Ojus 
Oiinnus  Mtliccam  cojisumpto  funerf  torris  ; 

Ntsnum  crinem  flcrt  fMtaniuv  a7<es 
At  Stiliflio  itterni  fataliii  ftiiftwra  libri^ 

Et  pletids  voliiit  pnnijiiture  coius. 

Nor  only  Koman  arms  \Uv  wretch  hetrivM 

To  barbarous  toes ;   before  tliut  curstvl  deed 

Ut^  burnt  the  writings  oi'  the  sacred  inaid. 

We  h.'ite  Alth?ca  for  the  fatal  brand  ; 

Wlien  \isus  fell,  the  wctpnijj;'  birds  complain'd  : 

More  cruel  he  tharj  llie  reven^^etul  fair  ; 

More  cruel  he  than  Nisus*  murderer; 

Whose  innpious  hands  into  the  fi  »mcs  have  thrown 

The  heavenly  pledt,''f  s  of  the  lloman  crown, 

Unravelling- all  the  doonn  that  careful  fate  had  spun. 

Among  all  the  religious  orders,  as  we  meet  with  none  oftener  in 
authors,  so  there  were  none  of  sucli  an  extravagant  constitution  as 
the  priests  of  Cvbele.  We  find  them  under  the  ditterent  names  of 
Curetes,  Corybantes,  Galli,  and  Idjci  Dactyli;"  but  can  scarce  get 
one  tolerable  etymology  of  either.  As  for  Cybele  herself,  she  is 
generally  taken  for  the  earth,  and  is  the  same  with  Rhea,  Ops,  Be- 
recinthia,  the  Idaean  Mother,  the  Mother  of  the  gods,  and  the  Great 
Goddess.  She  was  invited  and  received  into  Rome,  from  I'esinus  in 
Galatia,  with  great  solemnity,  upon  advice  of  the  Sibylline  oracles.* 

But  to  return  to  her  priests  ;  we  find  little  of  any  certainty  about 
them,  only  that  they  were  all  eunuchs,  and  by  nation  Phrygians; 
and,  that  in  their  solemn  processions  they  danced  in  armour  making 
a  confused  noise  with  timbrels,  pipes,  and  cymbals,  howling  all  the 
while  as  if  they  were  mad,  and  cutting  themselves  as  they  went  along. 
One  would  little  think  that  this  was  the  goddess  who  required  such 
a  sacred  silence  in  her  mysteries,  as  Virgil"  would  persuade  us  she 
did.  And  the  best  we  could  suppose  at  the  sight  of  this  bawling  re- 
tinue, is  that  they  were  going  to  settle  a  swarm  of  bees;  for  which 
service  the  same  poet  recommends  the  use  of  the  cymbals  of  Cybele.^ 


Polyhistor,  chap.  8. 
Dionys.  Antiq.  lib.  -1, 


'  Liv  lib.  29.  ch;<p.  14. 

''■  .Eneid.  3,  ^  Georg.  4 


But  we  cannot  have  a  better  relatioii  of  the  original,  and  the  man- 
ner ol  tiieir  strange  solemnity,  than  w  hat  Lucretius  has  given  us  in 
his  second  book  : 

Ihinc  varia  Rentes,  antiqtio  more  saCiorumy 
Id  am  vocitant  Muticm  Plnygiunque  latervas 
J)unt  romites  ;  (jui  piimum  e.r  i/iis  Jinibus  edunt 
Per  terru'uin  ot  betn  fruges  c  jpisse  cveari. 
(ialoa  uttribuunt   gum   numen  qui  violariut 
Alatt'is   et  iu^'uti  gent  oribus  invcuti  suitty 
^igiiijicave  voliint  tfidic^nos-  es/ie  putandos^ 
Vivuin  progenL-tn  qui  ni  oris  luminis  edant. 
Tijmpu/ui  tenia  toiuvit palniis  et  lymbala  incuiii 
Contiivii  raiuisoiif.gue  minantur  loi  /lua  Cuiitu, 
Et  Phrygto  stimula    numero  cava  tibia  merites , 
Ttluque  piMpy,  tunt  vio'cnti  signa  furoris, 
Ligrutos  uni*ius  utque  impiu  pcct  ,ra  voigi 
Cunterrae  metu  quu  possint  numine  dti>x. 

Uic  armatu  manus  {Cur etas  nomine  Gvaii  \ 

Quos  nienwruni  Phrygios)  inter  se  fortt    cateryy'is 
Ludunt^  numerumque  ersuUant  sanguine  Lvti ;  et 
Teirijicas  cupitutn  quatieritis  numine  cristas. 
JJict.ios  referunt  Curetas  ;  qui  Jovis  ilium 
Va^itum  tn  Creta  quondam  occultasse  fercutur. 
Cum  pueri  citciwi puerujn permce  chorea 
Jirmiiti  in  numerum  pulsarent  irribus  ara, 
AV  Suturnus  earn  malis  mandnret  adeptusy 
jEtemumque  daret  inatri  aub  pectore  vnlnus. 

Coiicernnig  her,  fond  superstition  frames 

A  thousand  odd  conceits,  a  thousand  names. 

And  gives  her  a  large  train  of  Phrygian  dames: 

Because  in  Phrygia  corn  at  first  took  birth, 

And  thence  was  scalter'd  oVr  the  other  earth. 

Tiic)  eunuch  all  iier  priests;  from  whence  'lis  shown. 

That  they  deserve  no  children  of  tiieir  own, 

Who  or  abuse  their  sir*,  s,  or  disrespect, 

Or  treat  their  mothers  with  «  cold  neglect ; 

I'heir  mothers  whom  they  should  adore. 

Amidst  her  pomp  fierce  drums  ami  cyn»bals  beat, 

And  the  hoarse  horns  with  rattling  notes  do  threat  ; 

The  pipe  with  Phrygian  airs  disturbs  their  soul;. 

Fill,  reason  overthrown,  mad  passion  rules. 

The>  carry  arms,  those  dreadful  si.qnsof  war. 

To  raise  i*  th'  impious  rout  religious  fear. 
•  •  *  •      **     *  ♦ 

Here  some  in  arms  dance  round  among  the  crowd, 
lx)ok  dreadful  gay  in  their  Ovvn  sparkling  blood, 
Their  crests  still  shaking  with  a  dreadfii'l  nod. 
These  represent  those  armed  priests  who  strove 
To  drown  the  tender  cries  of  infant  Jove  : 
Bv  dancing  quick  they  made  a  greater  soimd. 
And  beat  iheir  armour  as  they  danc'd  around. 
Lest  Saturn  should  have  found,  and  eat  the  boy, 
And  Ops  for  ever  mourn'd  her  prattling  joy.  creecb. 

But  we  must  not  omit  a  more  comical,  though  a  shorter  account 
that  we  have  of  them  in  Juvenal : 

—  Matrisque  Deum  chorus  intra,  et  ingem 
Semivir  obacano  faciea  referenda  mimri, 
MolUa  qni  rapta  secuit  genitalia  testa. 


100 


OF    THE    RELIGION    OF 

Jamptiikm  cut  ruuca  cohors,  ctii  tympana  cedunt 

An. I  (M)ele's  priests,  an  eunuch  at  their  head, 

Ab    il  the  strcetsii  mud  procession  led; 

TiK   venerable  g^-idinK,  larKe  and  high 

O'  rlo  >ks  ihe  herd  of  his  interior  fry  ; 

His    ukwara  cler(,'ymcu  abo-it  him  pranrr. 

And  heat  their twnbreis  to  tluir  m>stic  dance. 


DUVDr.jr. 


Tlic  Epulones,  at  their  first  creation,  Livy»  assures  us,  «ere 
only  tlucc  :  Soon  after  they  were  increased  to  seven  ;  whence  they 
are" commonly  called  Scplemviri  Epulonum,  or  barely  Seplemvin,  or 
the  SrMemviralu, ;  and  some  report  that  Julius  Cssar,  by  adding 
three  more,  chan-ed  them  to  a  Dccemvirale:t  hough  it  is  certain  they 
kept  their  old  name.     They  had  their  name  from  a  custom  which 
obtained  among  the  Romans,  in  time  of  public  danger,  of  making  a 
«„i„,,tuous  feast  in  their  temples,  to  which  they  did.  as  it  were  invite 
the  deities  themselves ;  for  their  statues  were  brought  on  rich  beds, 
with  their  mUrinuria  too,  or  pillows,  and  placed  at  the  most  honour- 
able part  of  tiie  table  as  the  principal  guests.     These  regal.os  they 
called  epul^,  or  leclisternia  ;  the  care  of  which  belonged  to  the  hpu- 
lones.     This  priesthood  is  by  Pliny  junior  set  on  an  e<,«al  looting 
with  that  of  the  Augurs  ;  when,  upon  a  vacancy  in  each  order   lie 
suoulicates  his  master  Trajan  to  be  admitted  to  either.     1  he  whole 
epistle  ought  to  be  set  down  for  an  example  of  modesty  and  wit. 

Plinius  Tbajano. 
Cum  sciam,  Domine.  ad  te.n,m,dum  Umdemqm  ,mrmn  meonmi 
perlinere  (am  boni  principis  judicio  exornari,  rogo,  digmlalt,  ad 
La>n  me  provexit  indalgenlia  tua,  vel  auguratum,  vcl  .uplemmm. 
,u,u,  qma  vacant,  adjkere  digncrh :  u,  jure  sacerdolii  precan  deos 
pro  te  publice  passim,  qmts  tmnc  precor  pulalc  pnvata. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

OF    THE    ROMAN    SACRIFICES. 

THE  word  samfidwn,  more  properly  signifies  the  thing  oBered 

than  the  acti.m  of  offering.     The  two  common  words  to  express  tl.e 

Sme     were  vietima  .Jhostia  ;  which,  though  they  are  very  oUen 

IZid,  yet  by  the  first  word  are  properly  meant  the  greater 

sort  of  sacrifices,  by  the  other  the  less. 


w  Jqv.  Sat.  6. 


*  liib.  33. 


•  •    •  •    «       • 

•  •  • 

«  •  • 

•  .  *     • 


n         4 


•  9   *   « 


•      ••• 


::••  •• 


•  •  • 

♦      9  •  • 


•    '    • 


l%''' 


'  A'" 
•J  ■ 


• .    -• . 


*  •       • 


•        •       •         • 


(»|Kif*  Uo^ti.truni 


■•  •    • 


It  t^m^M  1, 


IhhliJt/^l  h\   Hii^ytntui    .{ffniUinill'llliKmiifXt. 


•  » 


•  >  • 


.  •    • 


«  •         -  ,  •         «  •   • 
•    •  •     •  »     • 


THE    ROMANS. 


lel 


Though  every  ileitj  had  some  peculiar  rites  and  institutions,  and 
wonseciuently  diftercnt  sorts  of  sacrifices,  in  which  the  greatest  part 
of  the  public  worship  then  consisted  ;  yet  there  were  some  stand- 
inir  rules  and  ceremonies  to  be  observed  in  all. 

The  Priest  (and  sometimes  the  person  that  gave  the  victim)  went 
before  in  a  white  garment  free  from  spots  and  figures ;  for  Cicero 
tells  us,  that  white  is  the  most  acceptable  colour  to  the  gods ;  I 
suppose,  because  it  seems  to  denote  purity  and  innocence. 

The  beast  to  be  sacrificed,  if  it  was  of  the  larger  sort,  used  to  be 
marked  on  the  horns  with  gold  ;  if  of  the  lesser  sort,  it  was  crowned 
with  the  leaves  of  that  tree  which  the  deity  was  thiuight  most  to  de- 
light in  for  whom  the  sacrifice  was  designed.  And  besides  these, 
they  wore  the  infulcje  and  vitt^,  a  sort  of  white  fillets,  about  then- 
head. 

Before  the  procession  went  a  public  crier,  proclaiming  Hoc  age  to 
the  people,  to  give  tliem  notice  that  they  should  forbear  working, 
and  attend  to  the  solemnity.  The  pipers  and  harpers,  too,  were  the 
forerunners  of  the  show  ;  and  what  time  they  could  spare  from  their 
instruments,  was  spent  in  assisting  the  crier  to  admonish  the  peo- 
ple. The  sacrifice  being  brought  to  the  altar,  the  priest  took  hold 
of  the  altar  with  one  hand,  and  ushered  in  the  solemnity  with  a 
prayer  to  all  the  gods  ;  mentioning  Janus  and  Vesta  always  first  and 
last,  as  if  througli  them  they  had  access  to  the  rest.  During  the 
prayer,  some  public  oftlcer  was  to  command  the  strictest  silence,  for 
which  the  common  expression  was  Favcte  linguis,  a  phrase  used  by 
Horace. >  Juvenal,*  Tibullus,'  ^c.  And  the  piper  played  all  the 
while  to  hinder  the  hearing  of  any  unlucky  noise.  After  his  prayer, 
the  priest  began  the  sacrifice  witli  what  they  called  immolatlo, 
(though,  by  a  Synecdoche,  the  word  is  often  taken  for  the  whole  act 
of  sacrificing,)  the  throwing  some  sort  of  corn  and  frankincense,  to- 
gether with  the  moluy  i.  e.  bran  or  meal  mixed  with  salt,  upon  the 
iiead  of  the  beast.  In  the  next  place  he  sprinkled  wine  between  the 
horns;  a  custom  very  often  taken  notice  of  by  the  poets;  so  Virgil  ? 

Ipsa  tenens  dextrd  pateram  putchervima  Dido 
C'andentis  vaccue,  media  inter  cornuu  ftindit.^ 
O'er  the  white  Ijoifei's  horns  the  beatileoiis  queen 
Holds  the  rich  phte,  and  pours  the  wine  between. 

And  Ovid  more  expressly  : 

Bode,  caper,  vitem  ;  tamen  hinc,  cum  stabis  ad  aras. 
In  tua  quod  fundi  comua  possity  erit.'^ 

Go,  wanton  goat,  about  the  vineyard  l^rowze 
On  the  >  oun^,^  shoots,  and  stop  the  i  isin^^  juice  ; 
YouMl  leave  enough  to  pour  between  your  liorns, 
When  for  your  sake  the  hallowed  altar  burns. 

a  Lib.  2.  Eleg.  1.  *  Fast.  1. 

^  iEneid.  4.  v.  60. 

15 


•  < 


r  Lib.  3.  0(l.  1. 
'   ^.qt   19 


102 


ui    iiir:   iiJXiciON  oi 


THE    ROMANS. 


103 


Bui  beiore  lie  poured  the  wine  on  tlie  beast,  he  |)ut  the  phite  h. 
l>is  own  mouth,  and  just  touched  i(  with  his  lips,  ;rivin;r  it  to  those 
Ihat  stood  near  him  to  <lo  the  like.     This  they  teruied  Hhntio. 

In  the  next  place,  he  j)lucked  ott'some  of  the  roujr|,(.st  hairs  jrrou 
inn  between  the  horns  of  the  beast,  and  threw  them  into  the  lire,a« 
the  prima  libcunia : 

Et  suwmas  cajuc/m  media  inter  cormui  setas, 
Jgnihus  imjjunii  sacrm,  Ubaminu  fjiirna'^ 
'I'hc  hn.sllii.jj  li  ,irs  th  .t  on  li.e  toi-clitad  j,n-c\v, 
As  the  firsi  offering  on  llic  fire  she  threw. 

And  now  turnin^r  himself  to  the  east,  he  only  made  a  sort  of  crook 
ed  line  with  his  knife  from  the  forehead  to  the  tail ;  and  then  deliver- 
ed the  beast  to  the  public  servants  to  kill.  \N  c  find  these  interior 
otlicers  under  the  several  names  of  Popx,  Ajrones,  Cultrarii,  and 
\  ictimarii  :  Their  business,  besides  the  killinir  of  the  beast,  was  to 
take  oir  his  skin,  to  bowel  him,  and  to  wash  the  whole  body.  Then 
the  duty  of  the  Aruspex  came  in  place,  to  search  the  entrails  for 
Sood  and  bad  omens.  When  this  was  over,  the  priests  had  nothin^r 
else  to  do  but  to  lay  what  parts  they  thcmght  fittest  for  the  gods 
upon  the  altar,  and  to  go  and  regale  themselves  upon  the  rest.  So** 
Alex.  ab.  Alex.  lib.  4.  chap.  IT. 


ClIAPTKll  l\ 


OF    'niK     KOMW     vim;. 


\\  K  meet  with  three  accounts  in  use  at  several  times  amon«*-  the 
KomaFis,  which  owe  their  original  to  Romulus,  Numa,  and  .Juliu> 
Caesar.     Romulus  divided  his  year  into  ten  months,  which  Plutarch 
woulfl  persuade  us  had  no  certain  or  e((ual  term,  but  consisted,  some 
o(  twenty  days,  some  of  thirty-tive,  and  some  of  more.''     But  he  is 
generally  allowed  to  have  settled  the  number  of  days  with  a  great 
deal  more  ecpiality,  allc^ttingto  March,  May,Quintilis,  and  October, 
one  and  tjiirty  days;  to  April,  June,  Hextilis,  November,  and  De- 
cember, thirty  ;  making  up  in  all  three  hundred  and  four  davs.f 
Scilicet  artnu  mugis  quatn  xidcru,  J^omu/c  naras 
Scaliger  indeed  is  very  anirry  that  people  should  think  the  Romans 
liadeveranyotheraccount,  than  by  twelve  months.-^  Butit  is  probable 
<hat  the  testimonies  of  Varro,  Macrobius,Censorinus,  Ovid,  cjj-c.  will 

'  ^uft:%  "  ^^^-         '  ^^'""''''^  S*'*"-"-  '''>.!•  chap  12.     Censor ch   Die  Na- 
riut  Ml  Numa.  tal.  chap.  20.  Sec.       '  De  Emeiulat.  Tempor.  lib.  • 


viver-rule  the  bare  words  of  Licinius  Macer  and  Fenestella,  which 
are  all  he  produces.  As  to  the  names  of  Romulun's  months,  the  first 
to  be  sure  was  consecrated  to  Mars,  the  father  of  the  state.  The 
next  too  may  be  fetched  from  Venus,  the  other  guardian  parent  of 
the  Romans,  if  we  admit  of  the  allusion  between  the  word  Aprilis 
and  'Ac^^o/tTji,  her  name  in  Greek:  though  it  is  generally  derived, 
IVom  aprrh,  to  open,  because  this  is  the  chief  part  of  the  spring  in 
which  the  buds  and  flowers  open  and  disclose  themselves.''  May, 
he  named  so  from  Maiathe  mother  of  Mercury,  according  to  Plu- 
tarch ;'  though  Mocrobius  makes  the  Maia  to  whom  May  was  dedi- 
cated the  same  as  Rhea,  Ops,  or  the  F>arth,  and  different  from  Mer 
cury's  mother.J  Ovid  brings  it  «  senibus,  i.e.  a  mujoribus.'^  June 
either  comes  from  Juventus,  because  this  is  the  youthful  and  gay 
part  of  the  year  ;'  or  else  it  is  a  contraction  of  Junonius,  and  dedi- 
cated to  the  goddess  Juno.*"  The  other  months  he  denominated  as 
they  stood  in  order;  so  Quintilis  is  no  more  than  the  fifth  month, 
Sextilis  than  the  sixth  ;  and  so  on  :  But  these  two  afterwards  chang- 
ed their  names  to  July  and  August,  in  honour  of  Julius  Caesar  and 
his  successor  Augustus.  As  Nero  had  afterwards  called  April  Nc- 
ronius;"  so  Plutarch  tells  us,  that  Domitian,  too,  in  imitation  of 
them,  gave  the  two  months  immediately  following  the  names  of 
Germancius  and  Domitianus ;  but  he  being  slain,  they  recovered 
tlieir  old  denominations." 

Numa  was  a  little  better  acquainted  with  the  celestial  motions 
than  his  predecessor;  and  therefore  undertaking  to  reform  the  cal- 
ender, in  the  first  place  he  added  the  two  months  of  January  and 
February  ;  the  first  of  which  he  dedicated  to  the  god  Janus  ;  the 
other  took  its  name  homfebruo,  to  purity,  because  the  feats  of  puri- 
fication were  celebrated  in  that  month. '  To  compose  these  two 
months,  he  put  fifty  days  to  the  old  three  hundred  and  four,  to 
make  them  answer  the  course  of  the  moon  ;  and  then  took  six  more 
from  the  six  months  that  had  even  days,  adding  one  odd  day  more 
than  he  ought  to  have  done,  merely  out  of  superstition,  and  to  make 
the  number  fortunate.  However,  he  could  get  but  eight  and  twenty 
davs  for  February  :  and,  therefore,  that  month  was  always  count- 
ed unlucky.'  Besides  this,  he  observed  the  difterence  between  the 
ijolar  and  the  lunar  course  to  be  eleven  days  ;  and  to  remedy  the 
inequality,  he  doubled  those  days  after  every  two  years,  adding  an 
interstitial  month  to  follow  February,  which  Plutarch  calls  in  one 
place  Mercidinus,-^  and  in  another  Mercidonius.*    But  the  care  of 

^  Pint  in  Num.    Mnerob.    Sat.   lib.  1.  '"  Macrob.  ubi  supra.  _ 

chap   12  "  Suet,  in  Ntr.  chup.  55. 

•  In  Numa.          J  Sat.  lib.  1.  chap.  12.  o  pUit.  in  Numa  P  '^''^•-.n 
''Fast   1   V   41.  4  Ccnsorin.  de  Die  Natal,  chap.  ^w. 

•  Plut.'in  Numa.  In  Numa.         »  In  Jul.  Cjcs. 


i 


104 


or    'IHK    KELiulu.N    Ul 


THE    ROMANS. 


10^ 


this  intercalatioii  bi'inij;  \vi\  to  flu;  juiohts,  they  clapped  in  or  ieli 
out  the  !noii<li  whenever  they  please<l,  as  they  fancied  it  lucky  or 
un!u(  ky,  and  so  made  such  mad  work,  that  the  festivals  aiid  scdemu 
days  for  sacrifice  were  removed  by  little  and  little,  till,  at  last, 
they  came  to  he  kept  at  a  season  quite  contrary  to  what  they  had 
bern  fornx'rly.' 

Julius  Cxsar  was  the  first  that  undertook  to  remedy  the  disorder; 
and  to  this  purpose  he  called  in  the  best  philosophers  and  mathcma- 
tirians  of  lii^  lime,  to  settle  the    point.     In  ordei  to  brinjr  matters 
riiijht,  he  was  forced  to  mak<'  one  confused  year  of  fifteen  months,  oi 
four  humlred  and  forty-five  days  ;  but,  to  preserve  a  due  re«2;ulation 
for  the  future,  he  took  awav   the   intercalary  months;   and   addin:: 
ten  days  to  Numa's  three  hundred  anil  fifty -five,  equalled  them  to 
the  course  of  the  sun,  except  six  odd  hours.  The  ten  days  he  distri- 
buted amonjLi;  those  seven  months  that  had  before  but  nine  and  twen- 
ty; and  as  for  the  six  hours,  he  ordered    them  to   be  let   alone  till 
they  made  up  a  whole  day  ;  and  this  every  fourtli  year  he  put  in  the 
same  place  where  the  uionth  used  to  be  inserted  before;"  and  that 
was  just  five  davs  before  the  end   of  February,  or  next  before  tho 
sixth  of  the  calends  of  March.     For  this  reason  the  supenumerary 
day  had  the  name  of  Dies  HissexUis;  and  thence  the  leap-year  came 
to  be  called  Annus  Hissextilis. 

Hut  the  pi  iests,  wi\o  had  been  the  authors  of  the  old  confusion, 
committed  as  great  a  blunder  in  the  new  competition,  by  interposing 
the  leap-day  at  the  beginninnr  of  every  fourth  year  instead  of  the 
end  ;  till  Augustus  Cxsar  brought  it  into  the  right  course  again, ^  in 
which  it  has  continued  ever  since,  and  is  followed  by  a  great  part 
of  Kurope  at  this  day. 

Yet  because  there  wanted  eleven  minutes  in  the  six  odd  hours  of 
Julius's  year,  the  .^'quinoxesand  Solstics  losing  something  continu- 
ally, were  found,  about  the  year  1582,  to  have  run  back  ten  whole 
days  ;  foi-  which  reason.  Pope  Gregory  at  that  time  undertook  a  new 
reformation  of  the  calendar,  cutting  oft' ten  days  to  bring  them  to 
their  proper  places.  This  account  they  call  the  (Gregorian  or  New 
Style,  which  is  observed  too  in  many  parts  of  Europe. 


MnJnl.  Cxs. 

«*  Censorin.  chnp.  20. 


"  Microb   Sa«.l.b  1.  chap.  14.  Suclon. 
in  August,  chap.  31. 


CHAPTER  X. 

THE    DISTINniOX    OF    IHF    ROMAN    DAYS. 

WHEN  Numa  divided  the  year  Into  twelve  months,  he  made  a 
distinction  too  in  the  days,  ranking  them  in  these  three  orders: 
Dies  /V.s//,  Frnfeatiy  and  Intcicisi : 

The  first  sort  was  consecrated  to  the  i:ods ; 
I'hc  second  allotted  for  the  civil  business  of  men: 

The  third  divided  between  sacred  and  ordinary  employments. 

The  Dies  Fesli  were  set  apart  for  the  celebration  of  these  four 
solemnities,  Sacnficia,  Epiibe,  Liidi,  and  /Vr?>. 

Sacrificia  were  no  more  than  public  sacrifices  to  the  gods. 

Epulis  were  a  sort  of  banquets  celebrated  to  the  honour  of  the 
deities. 

Ludi  were  public  sports  instituted  witli  tlie  same  design. 

Ferim  were  either  public  or  private. 

The  public  were  of  four  sorts  :  StativdBy  Conceptivae,  hnperativae. 
and  Aundin.e. 

Feriv  Stativac  were  public  feasts  kept  by  the  whole  city,  accord 
ing  to  the  set  time  appointed  in  the  calendar  for  their  obseryation; 
as  the  Agonalia,  CarmcntuUa,  Luperc(diay  ^'c. 

Feriae  Conceplivfc  were  such  as  the  magistrates,  or  priests  ap- 
pointed annually  to  be  celebrated  upon  what  days  they  pleased;  as 
the  Lafiiife,  Puganulia,  Compitalia,  ^c. 

Ferise  Lnperativae  were  such  as  the  consuls,  praetors,  or  dictators. 

Instituted  by  virtue  of  their  own  authority,  and  commanded  to  be 

observed  upon  solemn  occasions,  as  thegaininjr  of  a  victory,  and  the 
'ike. 

Airndhiie  were  days  set  apart  for  the  concourse  of  the  people  out 

of  the  country  and  neighbouring  towns,  to  expose  their  commodities 

to  sale,  the  same  as  our  greater  markets  or  fairs.     They  had  the 

name  of  Nundinse,  because  they  were  kept  eyery  ninth  day,  as  Ovid 

informs  us.'^     It  must  be  remembered,  that  though  the  Nundinse  at 

first  were  of  the  number  of  tlie  Feriae,  yet  they  were  afterwards  bv  a 

law  declared  to  be  Dies  Fasti,  that  the  country  people  might  not  be 

hindered  in  their  work,  but  might  at  the  same  time  perform  their 

i>usiness  of  market  and  sale,  and  also  have  their  controyersies  and 

causes  decided  by  the  praetor;  whereas  otherwise  they  must  have 

been  forced  to  come  to  town  again  upon  the  usual  court-da vs. 


^S:j 


Fast.  1.  vrrs.  54. 


U)t> 


OF    THE    KELIGION    OF 


II 


/>r/.7'  Pnvatir,  were  holidays  observed  by  particular  pcrM)H.'»  ( 
families  uprm  several  accdunts;  as  birth-days,  funerals,  and  the  like. 

Thus  iijuch  lor  Ihe  Ditu  FcsfL 

'J'hr   /^rnfcsti   were  J'usti  ComitialtSy   Coinptrendini,   Stati,  and 
Prirlidrcs. 

/Jif.i  Fasti  were  the  same  as  our  court-days,  upon  which  it  was 
lawful  for  the  prxtor  to  sit  in  judrrinent,  and  consecpiently  Fitri  trin 
vcrhd,  to  say  those  three  solemn  words,  Do,  DicOy  Addico,  "  I  sit 
here  to  j^ive  laws,  declare  ri<:;ht,  adjudj^e  l(»sses.'*  All  other  days 
(except  the  intenisi)  were  called  Nffusti ;  because  it  was  not  lawful 
to  say  those  three  words  upon  them  ;  that  is,  the  courts  were  not 
oj)en.  Rut  we  may  observe  from  a  phrase  of  Horace/  that  IHch 
Nffa.sfus  signifies  an  unlucky  day,  as  well  as  a  non-court  day. 

IJica  Comifialfs^wen"  such  days  as  the  ComififiyOr  public  assem- 
blies of  the  people,  were  held  upon  ;  or,  as  Ovid  styles  them, 

Qutis  liopulutn  jus  est  includrre  scptisy 

Days  wh -11  pcopU   >>rc  shut  up  lo  vote 

Dica  Compcrcrulbn,  were  days  when  persons  that  had  been  sued 
\i\v^\\{  give  bail  ;  properly,  days  of  adjournment. 

Dies  Static  were  days  appointed  for  the  decision  of  any  cause  be- 
tween a  Roman  and  a  foreigner. 

Dies  Pr:i'liarrSy  w  ere  such  days  upon  wliich  they  thought  it  law  ful 
to  engage  in  any  action  of  hostility  ;  for  during  the  time  of  some  par- 
ticular feasts,  as  the  Saturnidiay  the  Latitue,  and  that  which  they 
called  Cum  mundus  patef,  consecrated  to  Dis  and  Proserpina,  they 
reckoned  it  a  piece  of  impiety  to  raise,  march,  or  exercise  their  men, 
or  to  encounter  with  the  enemy,  unless  first  attacked. 

If  we  make  a  division  of  the  Roman  days  into  fortunate  and  un- 
fortunate ;  Dies  Postriduani,  i.  e.  the  next  day  after  the  kalends, 
nones,  or  ides,  were  always  reckoned  of  the  latter  sort;  and  there- 
fore had  the  names  of  Dies  Atri. 

A.  Gellius  gives  us  the  reason  of  this  observation  from  Verrius 
Flaccusy  because  they  had  taken  notice  for  several  ages,  that  those 
days  have  proved  unlucky  to  the  state  in  the  loss  of  battles,  towns, 
and  other  casualties.' 

He  tells  us  in  the  same  place,  that  the  day  before  the  fourth  of 
the  kalends,  nones,  or  ides,  was  always  reckoned  unfortunate  ;  but 
he  does  not  know  for  what  reason,  unless  that  he  finds  the  great 
overthrow  at  Cannx  to  have  happened  on  such  a  day. 

Lib.  2  Od.  V\         V  Fasti  1.  vers.  53.  z  Ncct.  Attic,  lib.  5.  chap.  1". 


THE  ROMANS. 


107 


CHAPTER.  XJ. 

OF    THE   KALENDS,  NONES,  AND  IDES. 

iHE  way  the  Romans  used  to  reckon  the  days  of  their  months 
was  by  the  Kalends,  Nones,  and  Ides.  Romulus  began  his  months 
always  upon  the  first  day  of  the  moon,  and  was  followed  in  this  by 
the  authors  of  the  other  accounts,  to  avoid  the  altering  of  the  im- 
moveable feasts.  Therefore,  ^xi^vy  new  moon,  one  of  the  inferior 
priests  used  to  assemble  the  people  in  the  caj)itol,  and  call  over  as 
uiany  days  as  there  were  between  that  and  the  nones  ;  and  so  from 
the  old  w(»rd  c«/o,  or  the  Greek  x«>i«,  to  call,  the  first  of  these  days 
tiad  the  name  of  Kalends.  But  we  must  remember,  that  this  cus- 
tom of  calling  the  days  continued  no  longer  than  the  year  of  the  ci- 
ty 450,  when  C.  Flavius,  the  Curule-^Edile,  ordered  the  faHti,  or 
kalendar,  to  be  set  up  in  public  places,  that  every  body  might  know 
tlie  difference  of  times,  and  the  return  of  the  festivals." 

Tlie  nones  were  so  called,  because  they  reckoned  nine  days  from 
the  ides. 

The  ides  were  generally  about  the  middle  of  the  month,  and  then 
we  may  derive  the  word  from  iduare,  an  obsolete  verb  sio"nifvin«-to 
uivide. 

The  kalends  Mere  always  fixed  to  the  first  day  of  every  month, 
but  the  nones  and  the  ides  in  four  months  were  on  difterent  dav» 
than  in  the  other  eight.  For  March,  May,  July,  and  October,  had 
six  nones  a-piece,  the  other  only  four.  Therefore,  in  the  first,  the 
/lones  were  the  7th,  and  the  ides  the  15th  ;  in  the  last,  the  nones 
the  5th,  and  the  ides  the  13th. 

In  reckoning  these,  they  always  went  backwards,  thus,  Januarv 
I,  was  the  first  of  the  kalends  of  January:  December  31,  Prid. 
KuL  Jan.;  Decemb.  30,  Tertio  KaL  Jan.  and  so  on  to  the  13th, 
and  that  was  Idas  Decembris  ;  and  then  the  12th  Prid.  Iduurn  Dt- 
cemb.;  the  11th,  Tertio  Iduum  Decemb.  and  so  on  to  the  5th  dav, 
anil  that  was  Xon^  Decemb.  And  then  again  the  4th,  Prid.  Xnna- 
rinn  Decemb.;  the  third,  Tertio  Non.  Decemb.;  the  second,  Qmi- 
to  Non.  Decemb.  ;  and  the  first  Kalends  Decemb. 

We  must  observe,  that  when  we  meet  with  Kalendis  Nonas,  or 
Idas  in  the  accusative  case,  the  proposition  ante  is  always  under- 
stood :  As  tertio  Kalendas,  Idiis,  or  Nonas,  is  the  same  as  tertio  die 
ante  Kal.  Non.  or  Idus. 


«  Liv,  lib.  5  chap.  AS,  Sic. 


lOS 


OF  THE    RIILIGION  OT 


CHAPTER  XII. 


-  FIE  MOST  REMARKABLE  FESTIVALS  OF  THE  ROMANS,  AS  THEY 

STAND  IN  THE   KALENDER. 

HIE  kalends,  or  the  fust  day  of  January,  was  noted  for  the  en- 
tcnug  of  tlie  magistrates  on  their  office;  and  for  the  wishino;  of  good 
fortune,  and  sending  presents  to  one  another  among  friends." 

The  ninth  (or  quinL  Id.)  was  the  feast  of  the  Agonalia,  instituted 
by  Numa  Pompilius,  in  honour  of  Janus,  and  attended  with  the 
«>«vic.  the  solemn  exercises  and  combats  ;  whence,  in  Ovid's  judg- 
ment,'^ it  took  its  name. 

The  eleventh  (or  terL  id.)  was  tlic   feast  of  the  Carnuntcdia,  iv 

memory  of  Carmenta,  Evander's  mother. 

February  the  fifteenth,  or  the  fifteenth  of  the  kalends  of  March, 
was  the  feast  of  the  Lnpercalia,  when  the  Luperci  made  iheir  wild 
procession,'*  which  has  been  described  before. 

February  the  eleventh,  or  the  third  of  the  isles,  was  the  Feralia, 
or  feast  in  honour  of  the  ghosts  ;  wlien  people  carried  some  little 
sort  of  ottering  to  the  graves  of  their  deceased  friends.  Ovid  give< 
us  so  handsome  an  account  of  it,  that  we  must  not  pass  it  by  : 

Est  honor  et  tumulis  ;  unimas  placare  l>aternas^ 

i*arvaque  in  i-.itiuctas  ynuneru  ftrre  [nirim  ; 
Parva  pttnnt  numes  :  pictus  pro  divite  grata  est 
Miniere;  twn  uvid^'S  Styx  habet  ima  Dtos  ;  , 
Tegula  porrtctis  satis  est  velata  curonis. 

Est  sparsu'  Jrugcs,  parraque  mica  siUis.^ 

Tombs  liave  their  honours  loo  :  Otir  parents  crave 
Some  slfiuler  presents  to  adorn  their  ^rruve. 
Slender  the  present  which  tlie  pjhosts  we  owe  ;  "^ 

Those  i)owers  observe  not  whai  ue  };ive,  but  how  ;     ^- 
No  gree<1y  soids  disturb  the  happy  seats  below  ;  J 

They  otdv  ask  a  tile  with  garlands  crown'd, 
And  fruil'und  still  to  scatter  on  the  j;rounJ. 

The  day  after  the  feralia  was  tiie  Charistia,  or  Festival  of  Lo>e. 
when  all  the  relations  in  every  family  met  together  and  had  a  feast. 

On  the  22d  or  23d  (according  to  the  difterent  length  of  this 
month)  were  the  Tirmlmdia  sacred  to  Terminius,  the  guardian  of 
boundaries  and  land-marks ;  on  which  they  now  offered  to  him  cake^^ 
and  fruits,  and  sometimes  sheep  and  swine,  notwithstanding  the 
ancient  prohibition  of  bloody  sacrifices  in  this  case ;  the  reason  ot 


b  Ovid.  Fast.  l.v.  71. 

'  Iilcm,  lib.  1. 


<i  Idem,  2^v.  267,  &c. 
'^  Ibid.  533,  8iC. 


THE    ROMANS. 


105 


which  prohibition  Plutarch  supposes  to  have  been,  lest  they  should 
violate  the  tokens  of  peace  and  agreement,  by  staining  them  with 
blood. 

The  kalends  of  March  was  the  iMatronalia,  a  feast  kept  by  the 
Roman  matrons  to  the  honour  of  Mars ;  to  whom  they  thought 
themselves  obliged  for  the  happiness  of  bearing  good  children ;  a 
favour  which  he  first  conferred  on  his  own  mistress,  Rhea.? 

This  feast  was  the  suoject  of  Horace's  ode, 
Alartiis  Calebs  quid  ag  -m  Cuiendis.  ^c. 

On  the  same  day  began  the  solemn  feast  of  the  Salii,  and  their 
procession  with  the  ancylia,  wiiich  have  been  spoken  of  before. 

The  ides  of  March  was  the  feast  of  Anna  Perenna ;  in  honour 
either  of  the  sister  of  Dido,  who  fied  into  Italy  to  ^iLneas;  or  of  one 
Anna  an  old  gentlewoman,  that,  in  a  great  dearth  at  Rome,  for  some 
time  furnished  the  common  people  with  corn  out  of  her  own  store. 
The  celebration  of  this  day  consisted  in  drinking  and  feasting  largely 
amongfriends.  The  common  people  met  for  this  purpose  in  the  tielda 
near  the  Tiber,  and  building  themselves  booths  and  arbours,  kept 
the  day  with  all  manner  of  sports  and  jollity  ;  wishing  one  another 
to  live  as  many  years  as  they  drank  cups." 

The  same  day  was,  by  a  decree  of  the  senate,  ordered  to  be  callei^l 
Parricidiuniy  for  the  murder  of  Julius  Csesar,  which  happened  on 
it.'  Appian,  in  his  second  book,  tells  us  of  a  very  different  law  that 
Dolabella  the  consul  would  have  preferred  upon  this  occasion;  and 
ihat  was,  to  have  the  day  called  ever  after,  Natalis  urbis,  the  birth- 
day of  the  city;  as  if  their  liberty  had  revived  upon  the  death  of 
Ci3esar. 

March  the  19tli,  or  the  14th  of  the  kalends  of  April,  began  the 
(^uinquatrusj  or  Quinqnutria^  the  feast  of  Minerva,  continuing  five 
ilays.  It  was  during  this  solemnity,  that  the  boys  and  girls  used  to 
pray  to  the  goddess  for  wisdom  and  learning,  of  which  she  had  tho 
patronage;  to  which  custom  Juvenal  alludes: 

E'oquivm  €t  J  avium  Deinostheui^  aut  CiCfronis 
luCipit  optare,  et  tutis  qui7iquutribus  optatJ 

To  n\al  i  ully  or  Deniosihent  s, 

Uegins  io  wi.sh  in  llie  QMinqnairian  du;s, 

And  wishes  all  the  teast. 

At  the  same  time  the  youths  carried  their  masters  their  fee  oi 
present,  teruied  Minerval. 

April  the  19th,  or  the  13th  of  the  kalends  of  May,  was  the  Ccrea- 
na,  or  feast  of  Ceres,  in  which  solemnity  the  chief  actors  weie  the 
women.     ISo  person  that  mourned  was  allowed  to  bear  a  part  in  this 


'  Quxst.  Hum 

■.  Ovid.  Fust.  3.  V.  233. 


^  Fdic'.  v.  52o,  &c. 

•   Sutton,  in  Jul.  chap.  88, 


J  Sat.  10. 


15 


liu 


Ul    THE    RELIGION    Ol 


service  ;  and  therefore  it  is  ver)  remarkable,  that,  upon  the  defeat  at 
Cannae,  there  was  such  an  universal  grief  in  the  city,  that  the  anni- 
versary feast  of  Ceres  was  lorced  to  be  omitted." 

April  the  21st,  or  the  11th  of  the  kalends  of  May,  was  the  Palilia, 
or  feast  of  Pales,  the  goddess  of  shepherds.  This  is  sometimes  called 
Farilia  a  paricndo,  because  prayers  were  now  made  for  the  fruitful- 
ness  of  the  sheep.  Ovid  tells  us  a  very  tedious  course  of  superstition 
that  the  shepherds  ran  through  upon  this  day:  They  always  contri-. 
ved  to  have  a  great  feast  at  night;  and,  when  most  of  them  were 
pretty  merry,  they  concluded  all  with  dancing  over  the  tires  that  they 
made  in  the  field  with  heaps  of  stubble. 

The  same  day  was  called  Urbis  JSatulLsy  being  the  day  on  which 

the  city  was  built.'" 

April  the  2jth,  or  the  Tth  of  the  kalends  of  May,  was  the  Rohiga- 
liUy  a  feast  of  the  goddess  Robiga,  or  the  god  Uobigus,  who  took  care 
to  keep  oft*  the  mildew  and  blasting  from  the  corn,  and  fruit." 

April  the  27th,  or  the  5th  of  the  kalends  of  May,  was  the  Floralia, 
or  feast  of  Flora,  the  goddess  of  flowers, '  when  the  public  sports 
were  celebrated  that  will  be  hereafter  described.'' 

In  the  remaining  part  of  the  year,  we  meet  with  no  festival  of  ex- 
traordinary note,  except  the  Popiijugiian  and  the  Saturnalia. 

The  ori«'-inal  of  the  famous  Nonx  CaprotincEj  or  Poplifugium,  is 
doubly  related  by  Plutarch,  according  to  the  two  common  opinions. 
First,  because  Romulus  disappeared  on  that  day,  when  an  assembly 
bein**-  held  in  the  Palus  Capreay  or  goats-marsh,  on  a  sudden  hap- 
pened a  most  wonderful  tempest,  accompanied  with  terrible  thunder 
and  other  unusual  disorders  in  the  air.  The  common  people  fled 
ail  away  to  secure  themselves,  but,  after  the  tempest  was  over, 
could  never  find  their  king.  • 

Or  else  from  Capiificus  a  wild  fig-tree,  because  in  the  Gallic  war, 
a  Roman  virgin,  who  was  prisoner  in  the  enemy's  camp,  taking  the 
opportunity  when  she  saw  them  one  night  in  a  disorder,  got  up  into 
a  wild  fig-tree,  and  holding  out  a  lighted  torch  toward  the  city,  gave 
the  Romans  a  signal  to  fall  on  ;  which  they  did  with  such  good  suc- 
cess as  to  obtain  a  considerable  victory. •• 

The  original  of  the  Saturnalia,  as  to  the  time,  is  unknown;  Ma- 
crobius  assuring  us,  that  it  was  celebrated  in  Italy,  long  before  the 
building  of  Rome  y  the  story  of  Saturn,  in  whose  honour  it  was  kept, 
every  body  is  acquainted  with.     As  to  the  manner  of  the  solemnity. 


«•  Liv.  lib.  22. 

•   Ovid.  Fast.  V.  4.  721,  fcc. 

^  Ibid.  V  806. 

«  Ibid.  V.  901.  o  Ibid.  V.  9t3 


r  See  book  v.  cliap.  7. 

^  Plutarch,  in  Homtilo. 

*  Plmarch.  in  Romulo,  et  in  Camillo, 

"   Macrob.  Saturn,  lib.  1.  cli^p.  7. 


THE   ROMANS. 


Ill 


bseides  the  sacrifices  and  other  parts  of  public  worship,  there  were 
several  lesser  observations  worth  our  notice:  As,  first,  the  liberty 
now  allowed  to  servants  to  be  free  and  merry  with  their  masters,  so 
often  alluded  to  in  authors.  It  is  probable  this  was  done  in  memory 
of  the  liberty  enjoyed  in  the  golden  age  under  Saturn,  before  the 
names  of  servant  and  master  were  known  to  the  world.  Besides  this' 
they  sent  presents  to  one  another  among  friends  ;  no  war  w^as  to  be 
proclaimed,  and  no  offcMider  executed  ;  the  schools  kept  a  vacation, 
and  nothing  but  mirth  and  freedom  was  to  be  met  with  in  the  city> 
They  kept  at  first  only  one  day,  the  14th  of  the  kalends  of  January; 
but  the  number  was  afterwards  increased  to  three,  four,  five,  and 
«iome  say  seven  days.* 


Lips.  Salurnal.  lib.  1.  chap. 


I'Aur  II.— .hook  III. 


WF  THE  CIVIL  r.OVFJlNMF:NT    W    IHL    KoMANS. 


o 


(  IIAPIKK  i. 


I     1  JIK   GENERAL   DIVISION    OK  TllK   I»KOl>I.t. 


RO.MUI.US,  as  soon  as  his  city  was  tolerably  well  lilloil  willi  iii- 
iiabiiaiits,  made  a  clistiiiction  of  the  people  acconlin;;  to  honour  and 
quality;  J^ivinu;  tlie  belter  sort  tlie  name  of  Pdlrcs,  or  Pafrlcil,  and 
the  rest  the  common  title  of  ricbcii.  To  bind  the  two  degrees  more 
firmly  toi^ether,  he  recommended  to  the  Patricians  some  of  the  Pic 
bians  to  protect  and  countenance  ;  the  former  being  styled  PatronL 
and  the  latter  ClicnUs.  Tlie  patrons  were  always  their  clients  coun- 
sellors in  difficult  cases,  theiradvocates  in  judgements;  in  short,  their 
advisers  and  overseers  in  all  allairs  whatever.  On  the  other  side,  the 
clients  faithfully  served  their  patrons,  not  only  paying  them  all  ima- 
o-inable  respect  and  deiVerence,  but,  if  occasion  required,  assisting 
them  with  money  towards  the  defraying  of  any  extraordinary  charges, 
liut  afterwards,  when  tlie  state  grew  rich  and  great,  though  all  other 
o-ood  othces  continued  between  them,  yet  it  was  thought  a  dishonour- 
able  thing  for  the  better  sort  to  take  any  money  of  their  inferiors.' 

The  division  of  the  people  into  the  three  distinct  orders  of  Sena- 
tors, Knights,  and  Commons,  took  its  rise  about  the  time  of  Tar- 
quin's  expulsion.  The  senators  were  such  persons  as  had  been  pro- 
moted to  sit  in  the  supreme  council  of  state,  either  out  of  the  nobili- 
ty or  commons.  If  out  of  the  latter  order,  they  had  the  honour  of  a 
gold  ring,  but  not  of  a  horse  kept  at  the  public  charge ;  as  Manutius 
hath  nicely  observed.  The  knights  were  such  persons  as  were  al- 
lowed a  gold  ring  and  a  horse  at  the  public  charge.  The  commons 
were  all  the  rest  of  the  people  besides  these  two  orders,  including 
not  only  the  inferior  populace,  but  such  of  the  nobility  too  as  had 
not  yet  been  elected  senators,  and  such  of  the  gentry  as  had  not  a 
complete  knight's  estate  :  For  persons  were  admitted  into  the  two 
higher  ranks  according  to  their  fortunes ;  one  that  was  worth  eight 
hundred  sestertia,  was  capivble  of  being  chosen  a  senator  ;  one  tha* 


*  Vide  Dionvs.  lib.  2.    I/iv.  lib.  1.     Tlularch.  in  Uomi'lo 


OF    THE    ROMANS. 


lU 


liad  four  hundred,  might  be  taken  into  the  equestrian  order.  Au- 
<yustus  afterwards  altered  the  senatorian  estate  to  twelve  hundred 
sesterces  ;  but  the  equestrian  continued  the  same. 

The  three  common  terms  by  which  the  knights  are  mentioned  in 
Roman  authors,  are  Equfs,  Equestih  ordiniH.SLnd  Efpiesfri  loco  na- 
lUH ;  the  two  former  of  which  are,  in  all  respects,  the  very  same. 
15ut  the  latter  is  properly  applied  to  those  Equittn  whose  fathers 
weie  indeed  of  the  same  order,  but  had  never  reached  the  senatori- 
an dignity  ;  for,  if  Lheir  fatliers  had  been  senators,  they  would  have 
been  said  to  have  been  born  of  the  senatorian,  and  not  of  the  eques- 
trian rank.** 

A\  hen  we  find  the  Optimates  and  the  Populares  opposed  in  au- 
thors, we   must  suppose  the  former  to  have  been  those  persons  of 
what  rank  soever,  who  stood  up  for  tlie  dignity  of  the  chief  magis- 
trates, and  the  riiC(>rous  i':randeur  of  the  state  ;  and  who  cared  not  if 
the  inferior  members  suft'ered  for  the  advancement  of  the  command- 
ing powers.    The  latter  we  must  take  likewise  for  those  persons  of 
what  rank  soever,  who  courted  the  favour  of  the  commons,  by  en- 
couraging them  to  sue  for  greater  privileges,  and   to  bring  things 
nearer  to  a  level.     For  it  would  be  unreasonable  to  make  the  same 
distinction  between  these  parties,  as  Sigonius  and  others  lay  down, 
"  that  the  Populares  were  those  who  endeavoured  by  their  words 
and   actions  to  ingratiate  themselves  with  the  multitude ;  and  the 
Optimates  those  who  so  behaved  themselves  in  all  affairs,  as  to  mak»i 
their  conduct  approved  by  every  good  man."  This  explication  agrees 
much  better  with  the  sound  of  the  words,  than  with  the  sense  of  the 
things ;  for  at  this  rate  the  Optimates  and  the  Populares  will  be  only 
other  terms  for  the  virtuous  and  the  vicious;  and  it  would  be  equal- 
ly hard  in  such  large  divisions  of  men,  to  acknowledge  one  side  to 
have  been  wholly  honest,  and  to  affimi  the  other  to  have  been  entire- 
ly wicked.  I  know  that  this  opinion  is  built  on  the  authority  of  Ci- 
cero; but  if  we  look  on  him  not  only  as  a  prejudiced  person,  but  as 
an  orator  too,  we  shall  not  wonder,  that  in  distinguishing  tlie  two 
parties,  he  gave  so  infamous  a  mark  to  the  enemies*  side,  and  so  ho- 
nourable a  one  to  his  own.  Otherwise  the  murderers  of  Cassar  (who 
were  the  Optimates)  must  pass  for  men  of  the  highest  probity:  and 
the  followers  of  Augustus  (who  were  of  the  opposite  faction)  must 
seem  in  general  a  pack  of  profligate  knaves.    It  would  therefore  be 
a  much  more  moderate  judgment,  to  found  the  difterence  rather  on 
policy,  than  on  morality;   rather  on  the  principles  of  government, 
than  of  religion  and  private  duty. 

There  is  another  common  division  of  the  people  into  Nobiles.Nov  i. 

*>  Tide  P.  Mannt.  de  Civ.  Rom.  p.  ^. 


114 


OF  THE  CIVIL  GOVERNMKNT 


and  Ignobiles,  taken  from  the  right  of  using  pictures,  or  statues ;  an 
honour  only  allowed  to  such  whose  ancestors  or  themselves  had 
born  some  Curule  office,  that  is,  had  been  Curule-^Edile,  Censor, 
Praetor,  or  Consul.  He  that  had  the  pictures  or  statues  of  his  ances- 
tors, was  termed  Nobilis ;  he  that  had  only  his  own,  Nevus ;  he  that 
had  neither,  Ignobilis.  So  that  Jus  imaginis  was  much  the  same 
thing  among  them,  as  the  right  of  bearing  a  coat  of  arms  among  us  ; 
and  their  Noints  Homo  is  ecjuivalent  to  our  upstart  gentleman. 

For  a  great  while  none  but  the  Patricii  were  the  Nobiles,  because 
no  person,  unless  of  that  superior  rank,  could  bear  any  Curule  of- 
fice. Hence,  in  many  places  of  Livy,  Sallust,  and  other  authors, 
we  find  Nobilitas  used  for  the  Patrician  order,  and  so  opposed  to 
Plebs.  But  in  after  times,  when  the  commons  obtained  a  right  of 
enjoying  those  Curule  honours,  they  by  the  same  means  procured 
the  title  of  Nobiles,  and  left  it  to  their  posterity.'' 

Such  persons  as  were  free  of  the  city,  are  generally  distinguished 
into  Ingenui,  Liberti,  and  Libertini.  The  Ingenui  were  such  as  had 
been  born  free,  and  of  parents  that  had  been  always  free.  The  Li- 
bertini were  the  children  of  sucii  as  had  been  made  free.  Liberti, 
such  as  had  been  actually  made  free  themselves. 

The  two  common  ways  of  conferring  freedom  were  by  testament^ 
and  by  manumission.  A  slave  was  said  to  be  free  by  testament, 
when  his  master,  in  consideration  of  his  faithful  service,  had  left 
him  free  in  his  last  will :  of  which  custom  we  meet  with  abundance 
of  examples  in  every  historian. 

This  kind  of  [iil)erti  had  the  title  of  Orcini,  because  their  masters 
were  cone  to  Orcus.  In  allusion  to  which  custom,  when,  after  the 
murder  of  Julius  Caesar,  a  great  number  of  unworthy  persons  had 
thrust  themselves  into  the  senate,  without  any  just  pretensions,  they 
were  merrily  distinguished  by  the  term  of  Scnatores  Orcini. ' 

The  ceremony  of  manumission  was  tlius  performed :  the  slave  was 
brought  before  the  Consul,  and  in  after  times,  before  the  Praetor,  by 
his  master,  who,  laying  his  hand  upon  his  servant's  head,  said  to  the 
Pr*etor,  Hunc  hoininemjibenimlesse  volo  ;  and  with  that,  let  him  go 
out  of  his  hand,  %vhich  they  termed  emanu  emittere.  Then  the  Prae- 
tor, laying  a  rod  called  vindicta  upon  his  head,  said.  Dice  eum  libc- 
mm  csscy  more  Qidritum  Hence  Persius : 

Vindicta  postguam  meus  a  Prxtore  reccssi. 

After  this  the  Lictor,  taking  the  rod  out  of  the  Praetor's  hand, 
struck  the  servant  several  blow  s  on  the  head,  face,  and  back  ;  and  no- 
thing now  remained  but  pileo  donari,  to  receife  a  cap  in  token  of  li- 


Vide  Sigon.  de  Jur.  Civ.  Rom.  lib.  2.  chap.  20.      <^  Sueton.  in  Octav.  ehap.  35. 


OP  THE  ROMANS. 


115 


herty,  and  to  have  his  name  entered  in  the  common  roll  of  freemen, 
with  the  .euson  of  his  obtaining  that  favour. 

There  was  a  third  way  of  bestowing  freedom,  which  we  do  not  so 
often  meet  with  in  authors;  it  was  when  a  slave,  by  the  consent  and 
approbation  of  his  master,  got  his  name  to  be  inserted  in  the  censor's 
roll  ;  such  a  man  was  called  liber  censu  ;  as  the  two  already  men 
lioned  were  liber  trstamento,  and  liber  mamnnissione. 


CHAPTER  n. 


OF    THE    SENATE. 


THE  chief  council  of  state,  and  as  it  were  the  body  of  magistrates. 
was  the  Senate ;  which,  as  it  has  been  generally  reckoned  the  foun- 
dation and  support  of  the  Roman  greatness,  so  it  was  one  of  the 
earliest  constitutions  in  the  republic;  for  Romulus  first  chose  out  a 
hundred  persons  of  the  best  repute  for  birth,  wisdom,  and  integrity 
of  manners,  to  assist  him  in  the  management  of  affairs,  with  the  name 
of  Senatores,  or  Patres,  from  their  age  and  gravity,  (vel  astate,  vel 
euro:  similitudine,  Patres  appellabaritur,  says  Sallust :)  a  title  as  ho- 
nourable, and  yet  as  little  subject  to  envy,  as  could  possibly  have 
been  pitched  upon.  After  the  admission  of  the  Sabines  into  Rome, 
an  equal  number  of  that  nation  were  joined  to  the  former  hundred.* 
And  Tarquinius  Priscus,  upon  his  first  succession  to  the  crown,  to 
ingratiate  himself  with  the  commons,  ordered  another  hundred  to 
be  selected  out  of  that  body,  for  an  addition  to  the  senate, "^  w^hich 
before  had  been  always  filled  with  persons  of  the  higher  ranks.  Sylla 
the  dictator  made  them  up  above  four  hundred;  Julius  Cccsar  nine 
hundred  ;  and,  in  the  time  of  the  second  triumvirate,  they  were 
above  a  thousand ;  no  distinction  being  made  w  ith  respect  to  merit 
or  quality.  But  this  disorder  was  afterwards  rectified  by  Augustus, 
and  a  reformation  made  in  the  senate,  according  to  the  old  consti- 
tution.*^ 

The  right  of  naming  senators  belonged  at  first  to  the  kings  ;  after- 
wards the  consuls  chose,  and  referred  them  to  the  people  for  their 
approbation;  but,  at  last,  the  censors  engrossed  the  whole  privilege 
of  conferring  this  honour.  He  that  stood  first  in  the  censor's  roll, 
had  the  honourable  title  of  Princeps  Senatus;"  yet  the  chief  magis- 


*  Dionys.  lib.  2. 
'  Idem,  lib.  3 


?  Sueton.  in  August,  chap.  35, 
^  A.  GelLlib.  3.  chap.  1«, 


lli> 


OF    THE    CIVIL    GOVERNMENT 


Irates  as  the  consuls,  dictator,  Sfc,  were  always  his  superiors  in  the 
house. 

Besides  the  estate  of  eight  hundred,  or,  after  Augustus,  of  tw  elve 
hundred  sestertia,  no  person  was  capable  of  this  dignity,  but  one 
who  had  already  borne  some  magistracy  in  the  commonwealth.  And 
that  there  was  a  certain  age  (even  in  later  times)  required,  is  plain, 
from  the  frecjuent  use  of  ietas  senatoria  in  authors.  Dio  Cassius 
positively  limits  it  to  five  and  twenty,'  which  was  the  soonest  time 
any  one  could  have  discharged  the  Quaetorship,  the  first  office  of  any 
considerable  note  ;  yet  we  meet  with  very  many  persons  promoted 
to  this  order,  without  any  consideration  had  to  their  years  ;  as  it 
usually  happened  in  all  other  honours  whatever. 

As  to  the  general  title  of  Patres  Conscript i  \:^i\ an  them  in  authors, 
it  was  taken  as  a  mark  of  distinction,  proper  to  those  senators  who 
were  added  to  Romulus*s  hundred  either  by  Tarquinius  Priscus,  or 
by  the  people  upon  the  establishment  of  the  commonwealth;  but  in 
after  times,  all  the  number  were  promiscuously  styled  Patres^  and 
P aires  Conscript i J 

We  may  take  a  farther  view  of  the  senators,  considered  all  to- 
gether, as  a  council  or  body. 

The  magistrates,  who  had  the  power  of  assembling  the  senators, 
were  only  the  Dictator,  the  Consuls,  the  Praetors,  the  Tribunes  of  the 
Commons,  and  the  Interrex.  Yet  upon  extraordinary  accounts,  the 
same  privilege  was  allowed  to  the  Tribuni  militum,  invested  w  ith 
consular  power,  and  to  the  Decemvirs,  created  for  the  regulating 
the  laws ;  and  to  the  other  magistrates  chosen  upon  some  unusual 
occasion.  In  the  first  times  of  the  state,  they  were  called  together 
by  a  public  crier ;  but  w  hen  the  city  grew  larger,  an  edict  was  pub- 
lished to  command  their  meeting.**^ 

The  places  where  they  assembled  were  only  such  as  had  been  for- 
mally consecrated  by  the  Augurs,  and  most  commonly  within  the 
city ;  only  they  made  use  of  the  temple  of  Bellona  w  ithout  the  walls, 
for  the  giving  audience  to  foreign  ambassadors,  and  to  such  provin- 
cial magistrates  as  were  to  be  heard  in  open  senates  before  they  en- 
tered the  city  ;  as  when  they  petitioned  for  a  triumph,  and  the  like 
cases.  Pliny  too  has  a  very  remarkable  observation,  that  whenever 
the  Augurs  reported  that  **  an  ox  had  spoke,"  which  we  often  meet 
with  among  the  ancient  prodigies,  the  senate  was  presently  to  sit  sub 
diOy  or  in  the  open  air.^ 


*  Lib.  52.  k  p.  Mamit.  dc  Senat.  Rom. 

i  P.  Mainit.  de  Senat.  unci  0.  Sigon      '  IMi!i.  Nat.  Hist.  lib.  i<.  cliaj\45. 
de  Antiq.  Jur.  C.  II. 


OF    THE    ROMANS. 


117 


As  for  the  time  of  their  sitting,  we  must  have  recourse  to  the 
common  distinction  of  senatus  legitiinus,  and  senatus  indictus. 

The  former  was  when  the  senate  met  of  course,  upon  such  days  as 
the  laws  or  custom  obliged  them  to.  These  were  the  Kalends, 
Nones,  and  Ides  in  every  month,  till  the  time  of  Augustus,  w  ho  con- 
fined them  to  the  Kalends  and  Ides.  In  the  months  of  September 
and  October,  by  an  order  of  the  same  emperor,  the  senators  were 
discharged  from  their  necessary  attendance ;  except  so  many  of  themi 
as  made  a  quorum,  a  number  sufficient  by  law  to  despatch  business; 
and  therefore  all  that  time  they  drew  lots  for  their  appearance  or 
excuse,  as  Suetonius  informs  us.  ^  We  may  observe  from  the  same 
author,  that  the  Ides  of  March  (called  Parricidium,  from  the  murder 
of  Julius  Caesar,  which  happened  on  it)  was  particularly  excepted  : 
and  a  decree  passed,  that  the  senate  should  never  meet  on  that  day 
for  the  future." 

Senatus  indictus,  w  as  a  senate  called  for  the  despatch  of  any  bu- 
siness upon  any  other  day;  except  the  Dies  cojuitiales,  when  the 
senators  were  obliged  to  be  present  at  the  Comitia, 

As  soon  as  the  senate  was  set,  the  consul,  or  other  supreme  magis- 
trate, in  the  first  place,  performed  some  divine  service,  and  then 
proposed  the  business  to  the  house  ;  both  which  actions  they  called 
referre  ad  senatum.' 

VVlien  he  had  opened  the  cause,  he  went  round  in  order  (begin- 
ing  w  ith  the  princeps  senatus^  and  the  designed  consuls)  and  asked 
every  body's  opinion;  upon  which,  all  that  pleased  stood  up,  and 
gave  their  judgment  upon  the  point. 

It  is  very  remarkable,  that  w  hen  any  senator  was  asked  his  opinion^ 
he  had  the  privilege  of  speaking  as  long  as  he  pleased,  as  well  about 
other  concerns  as  about  the  matter  in  hand  ;  and  therefore,  when 
any  particular  member  had  a  design  to  hinder  tlie  passing  of  any 
decree,  it  was  a  common  practice  to  protract  his  speech  until  it^ 
was  too  late*  to  make  any  determination  in  the  house. 

When  as  many  as  thouglit  fit  had  given  their  judgments  at  large, 
the  supreme  magistrate  made  a  short  report  of  their  several  opinions ; 
and  then,  in  order  to  passing  their  decree,  ordered  the  senators  to 
divide,  one  party  to  one  side  of  the  house,  and  the  opposite  to  the 
other.  The  number  being  now  told,  the  major  part  determined  the 
vase ;  and  a  Senatus  consultum  was  accordingly  wrote  by  the  pub- 
lic notaries  at  the  feet  of  the  chief  magistrate,  being  subscribed  by 
the  principal  members  that  promoted  it. 


^  In  Octav.  chap.  35. 

-    F(l.  in. Mil  Cts.  chan.  «S. 


0  P.  Manut.  de  Senat.  Rpro. 


\7 


Ili5 


Oi    THL    CIVIL    GOVERNMENT 


OF  THE    ROMANS. 


119 


Hut  in  cases  ot  little  concern, or  such  asrequireci  expedition,  the 
lormalityofaskinu;  opinions  and  <lebatiiiii  the  business  was  laid  asitle, 
and  a  decree  passed  upon  tlie  bare  division  of  the  house,  and  tlie 
counting  of  the  numbers  on  both  sides.  'I'his  was  called  SeniUnf>- 
comultum  per  dhcessionem  favffnn  ;  the  forn\er  simply   Senatiis- 

ronauHum. 

Julius  C'apitolinus  speaks  of  a  sort  of  Scuatfos-consulfa,  not  de- 
scribed by  any  other:  which  he  calls  Sctiutm-comultu  luvUa  ;  and 
tells  us  they  were  made  in  reference  to  affairs  of  great  secrecy, 
without  the  admittance  of  the  very  public  servants  :  but  all  the  bu- 
siness was  done  bv  the  senators  themselves,  after  the  passing  ol  an 
oath  of  secrecy,  until  their  design  siiould  be  eftected. 

There  were  several  things  that  might  hinder  the  passing  of  a  de- 
cree in  senate ;  as  in  case  of  an  inferccanio,  or  iIiterpo^ini;.  This 
was  commonly  put  in  practice  by  the  tribunes  id'  the  common>,  who 
reckoned  it  their  privilege  ;  but  it  might  be  done  too  by  any  ma- 
gistrate of  equal  authority  with  him  that  proposed  the  business  to 
the  house  ;  or  else  when  the  number  rec^uired  by  law  for  the  passing 
of  any  bill  was  not  present;  for  that  tliere  was  such  a  fixed  number 
is  very  evident,  though  nothing  of  certainty  can  be  determined  any 
farther  about  it. 

In  b(>th  these  cases,  the  oiiinions  of  the  major  part  of  the  senators 
was  not  called  Stnatus-comultUfiij  but  ^iutlwrUuii  aenafu.s  ;  their 
iud«i;ment,  not  their  command;  and  signilied  little,  unless  it  was 
afterwards  rallhed  and  turned  into  a  SauUm-considlumyVis  WriwaWy 
happened.  Vet  we  must  have  a  care  of  taking  Aulhoritas  hnmr- 
liiH  m  this  sense,  every  time  we  meet  with  it  in  authors.  For  uii- 
IcbS,  at  the  same  time,  there  be  mention  made  of  an  interce.'mhy, 
it  is  generally  to  be  understood  a  another  term  for  a  Scuatus-con- 
mlhtjii;  and  so  Tully  frequently  uses  it.  Sometimes  both  the 
names  are  joined  together;  as  the  usual  inscription  of  the  decrees 
was  in  these  initial  letters,  S.  C.  A.i.  c.  Svnatun-Consitlti-.luthorilas. 

Besides  these  two  impediments,  a  decree  of  senate  could  not  pa>> 
after  sun-set,  but  was  deferred  till  anotlier  meeting. 

All  along,  till  the  year  of  the  city  304,  the  written  decrees  were 
m  the  custody  «f  the  consul,  who  might  ilispose  of  them  as  he  thought 
proper,  ami  either  .suppress  or  preserve  them  :  But  then  a  law  pass 
ed,  that  tuey  should  be  carried  always  for  the  future  to  the  ^Edile^ 
phbifi,  to  be  laid  up  in  tlie  temple  of  Ceres:  Yet  we  find,  that  after- 
wards they  were  for  the  most  part  preserved  in  the  public  treasury. 


P  F.  Manui.  (h-  Sen. 

I  .lui.  Cu])il.  ill  tiord'.ai;. 

•   1'.  Mtinul.  de  Sen. 


*   Liv.  lib. 

^  ticci,  I'liilip.  5.     Suelon.  in  August 
Tacit.  Aiiuul.  J. 


it  may  be  farther  observed,  that  besides  the  proper  senators,  any 
magistrates  might  come  into  the  house  during  their  honour,  and  they 
who  had  bore  any  curule  oflice,  after  its  expiration.  But  then  none 
of  those  who  came  into  the  house  ])urely  upon  account  of  their  ma- 
gistracy were  allowed  the  privilege  of  giving  their  judgements  upon 
any  matter,  or  being  numbered  among  the  persons  who  had  votes. 
Yet  they  tacitly  expressed  their  mmd,  by  going  over  to  those  sena- 
tors whose  opinions  they  embraced ;  and  upon  this  account  they  had 
the  name  of  Senatores  Pedarii. 

This  •••ave  occasion  to  the  joke  of  Laberius  the  Mimic, 

Caput  sine  lingua  pedaria  stnteutiu  est 

There  was  an  old  custom  too,  in  the  commonwealth,  that  the  sons 
of  senators  might  come  into  the  house,  and  hear  the  proceedings. 
This,  after  it  had  been  abrogated  by  a  law,  and  long  disused,  was 
at  last  revived  by  Augustus,  who  in  order  to  the  bringing  in  the 
young  noblemen  the  sooner  to  the  management  of  aftairs,  ordered 
that  any  senator's  son,  at  the  time  of  putting  on  the  toga  viriHs, 
should  have  the  privilege  of  using  the  lotus  davus,  and  of  coming 
iiito  the  senate." 


CHAPTER  III. 

OF  THE  GENERAL  DIVISION  OF    THE    MAGISTRATES,   AND  01 

THE  CANDIDATES     FOR  OFFICES. 

NOT  to  speak  of  the  different  forms  of  government  which  obtain- 
ed amon-  the  Romans,  or  to  decide  the  case  of  pre-eminency  be- 
tween  them,  we  may  in  the  next  place  take  a  short  view  of  the  chief 
ma-istrates  under  them  all.  Of  those  we  meet  with  many  general 
di%isions  ;  as,  in  respect  of  time,  Magistratus  ordinarii  and  extra- 
ordinarii;  with  a  reference  to  the  persons,  Pa/nm,  Plebeil,  ^.m! 
Mixti;  from  their  quality,  Majores,  and  Minores  ;  from  their  man- 
ner of  appearing  in  public,  Curules  and  Non-cmuhs  ;  and  lastly, 
from  the  place  of  their  residence,  Urbani,  and  Frovincialcs.^  If  we 
would  pitch  upon  the  clearest  and  the  most  compendious  method, 
we  must  rank  them  according  to  the  last  distinction,  and  describe 
in  order  the  most  remarkable  of  the  civil  offices  at  home  and  abroad. 
But  it  will  be  expected,  that  we  first  give  some  account  of  the  per- 
sons that  stood  candidates  for  these  honours.  They  borrowed  the 
name  of  Candidati  from  the  toga  Candida,  in  which  they  were  habit- 

-  Siieton.  in  August,  chap.  38.  ^'  Llpsius  de  Mugistrut. 


120 


OF  THE  CIVIL   GOVERNMENT 


ed  at  the  time  their  appearino;  for  a  j^lace.  They  wore  this  loose 
gown  open  and  uiigirded,  without  any  close  garment  under;  which 
some  interpret  as  done  with  design  to  avoid  any  suspicion  the  peo- 
ple mi^ht  have  of  bribery  and  corruption;  but  Plutarch*  thinks  it 
was  either  to  promote  their  interest  the  better,  by  suing  in  such  an 
humble  habit;  or  else,  that  such  as  had  received  wounds  in  the  ser- 
vice of  their  country  mi;»;ht  the  more  easily  demonstrate  those  to- 
kens of  their  country  and  fidelitv;  a  very  powerful  way  of  moving 
the  affections  of  the  people.  Hut  he  disallows  the  reason  above  men- 
tioned, because  this  custom  prevailed  in  Rome  many  ages  before 
gifts  and  presents  had  any  influence  on  the  public  suffrages  ;  a  mis- 
chief to  which  he  attributed,  in  a  great  measure,  the  ruin  of  the 
commonwealth. 

They  declared  their  pretensions  generally  about  a  year  before  the 
election  ;  all  which  time  was  sj)ent  in  gaining  and  securing  of  friends. 
For  this  purpose  they  used  all  the  arts  of  popularity,  making  their 
circuits  round  the  city  very  often;  whence  the  phrase  ambire  ma- 
gutrahnn  had  its  rise.  In  their  walks,  they  took  the  meanest  per- 
sons by  the  hands;  ami  not  ordy  used  the  more  familiar  terms  of  fa- 
ther, brother,  friend,  and  the  like,  but  called  them  too  by  their  own 
proper  names.  In  this  seivice,  they  had  usually  a  nomenclator  or 
monitor,  to  assist  them,  who  whispered  everybody's  name  in  their 
ears.  For  though  Plutarch  tells  us  of  a  law  w  hich  forbade  any  can- 
didate to  make  use  of  a  prompter;  yet  at  the  same  time  he  observes, 
that  Cato  the  younger  was  the  only  person  who  confiu'med  to  it,  dis- 
charging the  v/hole  business  by  the  help  of  his  own  memory.* 

They  had  reason  to  be  very  nice  and  cautious  in  the  whole  method 
of  their  address  and  canvass;  for  an  affront,  or  perhaps  a  jest,  put 
upon  the  most  inconsiderable  fellow,  who  wasmasterof  a  vote,  might 
sometimes  be  so  far  resented  bv  the  mob,  as  to  turn  the  election  an- 
other  way.  There  is  a  particular  story  told  of  Scipio  Nasica,  which 
may  confirm  this  remark.  ^Vhen  he  appeared  for  the  place  of  Cu- 
rule-.Edile,  and  was  making  his  circuit  to  increase  his  party,  he 
lighted  upon  an  honest  plain  country-man,  who  was  come  to  town 
to  give  his  vote  among  the  rest,  and  finding,  as  he  shook  him  by  the 
hand,  that  the  flesh  was  very  hard  and  callous,  *  pr'ythee  friend,* 
(says  he)  'do'st  use  to  walk  on  thy  hands  r*  The  clown  was  so  far 
from  being  pleased  with  this  piece  of  wit,  that  he  complained  of  the 
aff*i-ont,  and  lost  the  gentleman  the  honour  which  he  sued  for. 

Such  persons  as  openly  favoured  their  designs,  have  been  distin- 
guished by  the  names  of  salutatores,  deduclores,  and  sectatoresj  The 


w  In  Coriolan. 

^  IMut.  in  Canlone  Utir.ens 


y  Uosin.  lib.  7,  chap.  8. 


OF    THE    ROMANS. 


121 


first  son  ordy  paid  their  compliments  to  them  at  their  lodgings  in 
the  morning  ;  and  then  took  their  leave.  The  second  waited  upon 
them  from  thence  as  far  as  the  Forum.  The  last  composed  their 
retinue  through  the  whole  circuit.  Pliny  has  obliged  us  with  a 
farther  remark,  that  not  only  the  person  who  stood  for  an  office,  but 
sometimes  too  the  most  considerable  men  of  their  party,  went  about 
in  the  same  formal  manner,  to  beg  voices  in  their  behalf ;  and  there- 
fore, when  he  would  let  us  know  his  great  diligence  in  promoting 
the  interest  of  one  of  his  friends,  he  makes  use  of  the  same  phrases 
which  are  commonly  applied  to  the  candidates  themselves;  as,  am- 
bire domoSy  prensare  amicos^  circumire  stationeSy^^  6^c. 

The  proceedings  in  the  elections  will  fall  more  properly  under 
the  account  of  the  assemblies  where  they  were  managed. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


OF    THE    CONSULS. 


THE  consular  office  began  upon  the  expulsion  of  the  Tarquins, 
in  the  year  of  the  city  244.  There  are  several  derivations  given  of 
the  word:  That  of  Cicero,  a  consulendo,''  is  generallv  followed. 
Their  powder  was  at  first  the  same  as  that  of  the  kings,  restrained 
only  by  plurality  of  persons  and  shortness  of  time  ;  therefore  Tully 
calls  it  rtgum  imperium,^  and  re^la  potesfaff."  In  war  they  com- 
manded in  chief  over  citizens  and  associates ;  nor  were  they  less 
absolute  in  peace,  having  the  government  of  the  senate  itself,  which 
they  assembled  or  dismissed  at  their  pleasure.  And  though  their 
authority  was  very  much  impaired,  first  by  the  tribunes  of  the  peo- 
ple, and  afterwards  upon  the  establishment  of  the  empire  ;  yet  they 
were  still  employed  in  consulting  the  senate,  administering  justice, 
managing  public  games,  and  the  like ;  and  had  the  honour  to  charac- 
terize the  year  by  their  own  names. 

At  the  first  institution,  this  honour  was  confined  to  the  nobility  ; 
but  in  the  year  of  the  city  38r,  the  commons  obtained  the  privilege 
of  having  one  of  their  own  body  always  an  associate  in  this  office. 
Sometimes  indeed  the  populace  were  so  powerful,  as  to  have  both 


'  Plln.  Epist.  lib.  2,  ep.  9. 
*  Cicero  de  Leg.  hb.  3. 


^  Ibid. 
Jdern,  de  Petitione  Consulatus. 


\2^ 


OF    THt    CIVIL    GOVERNMENT 


consuls  chosen  out  of  their  order  ;  but  generally  speuking  one  \va« 
a  nobleman,  and  the  other  a  commoner. 

No  person  was  allowed  to  sue  for  this  office,  unless  he  was  present 
at  the  election  and  in  a  private  station  ;  which  jj;ave  occasion  to  the 
civil  wars  between  Pompey  and  Cxsar,  as  has  been  already  observ- 
ed. Th»'  common  age  required  in  the  candi(hites  was  forty-two 
years.  This  Cicero  himself  acjjuaints  us  with,  if  we  allow  a  little 
scoj)e  to  his  way  of  speaking,  when  he  says  that  Alexander  the 
Great,  dying  in  his  thirty-third  year,  came  ten  years  short  of  the 
consular  age.''  But  sometimes  the  people  dispensed  with  the  law, 
and  the  emperors  took  very  little  notice  of  the  restraint. 

The  time  of  the  consuls'  government,  before  Julius  Caesar,  was 
always  a  complete  year  ;  but  he  brought  up  a  custom  of  substituting 
consuls  at  aliy  time  for  a  month  or  more,  according  as  he  pleased. 
Yet  the  consuls,  who  were  admitted  the  first  of  January,  denomi- 
nated the  year,  and  had  the  title  of  O r dinar ii ;  the  others  being 
styled  Sitffecti.' 

The  chief  ornaments  and  marks  of  their  authority  were  the  white 
robe  edged  with  j)urple,  called  Pnetextu;  which  in  after  times  they 
chan«»-ed  for  the  Toga  Pahnntn,  or  Picta,  before  proper  only  to  such 
persons  as  had  been  honoured  with  a  triumph;  and  the  twelve  Lie- 
tors,  who  went  before  one  of  them  one  month  and  the  other  the  next, 
carrying  the  Fasces  and  Seciiris,  which,  though  Valerius  Poplicola 
took  away  from  the  Fasces,  yet  it  was  soon  after  added  again. 

Their  authority  was  equal;  only  in  some  smaller  matters  he  had 
the  precedency,  according  to  the  Valerian  law,  who  was  oldest'; 
and  he,  according  to  the  Julian  law,  who  had  most  children. 


CHAPTER  V. 


OF    THE    DICTATOR    AND    HIS    MASTEU    OF    HORbh. 

THE  office  of  Dictator  was  of  very  early  original  ;  for  the  Latins 
cnterin"-  into  a  confederacy  against  Rome  to  support  Tarquin's  cause 
after  his  expulsion,  the  senate  were  under  great  apprehensions  of 
danger,  by  reason  of  the  difficulty  they  found  in  procuring  levies  to 
oppose  them :  While  the  poorer  commous,  who  had  been  forced  to 
run  themselves  into  debt  with  the  Patricians,  absolutely  refused  to 
list  themselves,  unless  an  order  of  senate  might  pass  for  a  general 


^'  Ciceron.  Philip,  o. 


e  Dio.  lib.  43.  Sueton.  in  Julio,  chap.  76,  &c 


OF    THE    ROMANS. 


123 


remission.  Now  the  pow  er  of  life  and  death  being  lately  taken  from 
the  consuls  by   the  Valerian  law,  and   liberty  given  for  an  appeal 
from  them  to   the   people,  tliey  could  not  compel  any  body  to  take 
up  arms.     Upon  this  account  they   found  it  necesi^ary  to  create  a 
magistrate,  who  for  six  months  should  rule  with  absolute  authority, 
even  above  the  laws  themselves.     The  first  person  pitched  upon  tor 
ihis  honour,  was  Titus  Largius  Flavins,  about  A.  U.  C.  9.52>,  or  ^2.55.^ 
The  supreme  officer  was  called  Dictator,  either  because  he  was 
dklKs,  named  of  the   consul,  or   else  from  his   dictating  and   com- 
manding what  should  be  done.'  Though  we  sometimes  meet  with 
ihe  naming  of  a  dictator  upon  a  smaller  account,  as  the  holding  the 
Comitia  for  the  election  of  consuls,  the  celebration  of  public  games, 
the  fixing  the   nail  upon  Jove's  temple  (which  they  called  clavxim 
pangere,  and  which  was  used  in  the  times  of  primative  ignorance, 
to  reckon  the  number  of  the  years,  and  in  the  times  of  latter  supei- 
stiti(Hi,for  the  averting  or  driving  away  pestilences  and  seditions) 
and  the  like  ;  yet  the  true  and  j)roper  Dictator  w  as  he  w  ho  had  been 
invested  with  this  honour  upon  the  occasion  of  dangerous  war,  sedi- 
tion, or  any  such  emergency  as   required  a  sudden  and   absolute 
command  ;    and  therefore  he  was  not  chosen  with  the  usual  formali- 
ties, but  only  named  in  the  night,  viud  voce,  by  the  consul,'  and  con- 
firmed by  the  divination  from  birds.    The  time  assigned  for  the  du- 
ration of  the  office  was  never  lengthened,  except  out  of  mere  neces- 
sity ;  and  as  for  the  perpetual  Dictatorships  of  l^ylla  and  Julius  Cx- 
sar,  thev  are  confessed  to  have  been  notorious  violations  of  the  law  s 
of  their  country.  There  were  two  other  confinements  which  the  dic- 
tator was  obliged  to  observe.  First,  he  was  never  to  stir  out  of  Italy, 
for  fear  he  should  take  advantage  of  tiie  distance  of  tlie  place  to  at- 
tempt any  thing  against  the  conunon  liberty.     Besides  this,  he  was 
always  to  march  on  foot ;  only,  upon  account  of  a  tedious  or  sudden 
expedition,  he  formerly  asked  leave  of  the  people  to  ride.^  But  set- 
tin"-  aside  these  restraints,  his  power  was  most  absolute.  He  might 
proclaim  war,  levy  forces,  lead  them  out,  or  disband  them,  without 
any  consultation  had  with  the  senate  :  he  could  punish  as  he  pleas- 
ed;  and  from  his  judgment  lay  no  appeal;    at  least  not  till  in  later 
times.    To  make  the  authority  of  his  charge  more  awful,  he  had  al- 
ways twenty -four  bundle  of  rods,  and  as  many  axes,  carried  before 
him  in  public,  if  we  will  believe  Plutarch    and  Polybius ;"  though 


f  Dhmivs.  AiUiq.  lib.  5.  Liv.  lib.  2. 

?  luiil. 

^'  L  ps.  'le  Magistral,  chap.  IT. 

i  I..V.  lib.  4. 

'  Cicero  de  Leg.  lib.  .j. 


k  Dio.  lli^^t    ill).  36. 

1   IMul     MS   TaU.    M..X. 

"'  D.oi.vs   Aiuiq.  lib.  ^'. 
n  In  F.ij    Max. 
*^  llibl.  lib.  o. 


124 


OF  THE  CIVIL  GOVERNMLNT 


Livy  attribute^  the  first  rise  of  this  custom  to  Syla.»'  Nor  was  he 
only  invested  with  the  joint  authority  of  both  of  the  consuls  (whence 
the  Grecians  called  him  Ai<ruTaToc,  or  double  consul :)  but  durin;;;  his 
administration,  all  other  magistrates  ceased,  except  the  tribunes, 
and  left  the  whole  government  in  his  hands.' 

This  office  had  the  repute  to  be  the  only  safeguard  of  theconnncm- 
wealth  in  times  of  danger,  four  hundred  years  tou;ether ;  till  Sylla 
and  Cccsar  converted  it  into  a  tyranny,  and  rendered  the  very  name 
odious.  Upon  the  murder  of  tjje  latter,  a  decree  passed  in  the  se- 
nate, to  forbid  the  use  of  it  upon  any  account  whatsoever  for  tho 
future."" 

The  first  thing  the  Dictator  tlid  was  to  choose  a  Magiater  Ef/id- 
turn,  or  master  of  the  horse,  (he  liimself  being  In  ancient  times,  by 
a  more  general  name,  termed  Mugiitcr  Popidi)  who  was  to  be  his 
lieutenant-general  of  the  army,  but  could  act  nothini^  without  his 
express  order.  Yet  in  tlie  war  with  hanibal,  when  the  slow  proceed- 
ing of  Fabius  Maximus  created  a  suspicion  in  the  commons,  they 
voted,  that  Minutius,  his  master  of  the  horse,  should  have  an  equal 
authority  with  Fabius,  and  be,  as  it  were,  another  Dictator.*  The 
like  was  afterwaids  practised  in  the  same  war  upon  the  defeat  at 
('anna:,  when  the  Dictator,  M.  Junius,  being  with  the  army,  Fabius 
15uteo  was  chosen  a  second  Dictator  at  Rome,  to  create  new  sena- 
tors for  the  supplying  of  their  places  who  had  been  killed  in  the 
battle ;  though  as  soon  as  ever  the  ceremony  was  over,  he  immediate- 
laid  dow  n  his  connnand,  and  acted  as  a  private  person.' 

There  was  another  expedient  used  in  case  of  extreme  emergency; 
much  UUl'  this  custom  of  creating  a  Dictator;  and  that  was,  to  invest 
the  counsel>,  souielimes  the  otlier  chief  mai:;istrates,  as  the  Praetors, 
I'ribuni's,  <J)'c.  with  an  absolute  and  uncontrolable  power.  This  was 
perfornied  by  that  short  yet  full  decree  of  senate,  J)cnt  opr-ram  con- 
Allies,  eye.  /i€  quid  ditrimenti  capiat  respifbiica :  "Let  the  consuls, 
ixc.  take  care  that  the  commonwealth  sutter  no  damnire." 


V  Rpi torn.  HI)  89. 
i  Plut.  in  Tab.  Max. 
IV(»    |i^».  44.  A;«pian.  I'h  1. 


'  Plutarch,  in  Fab.  Max.  l'ui}!»ius  lib.  o. 
■  Pkiturcli.  Ibifl. 


OF    THE    ROMANS. 


12o 


CHAPTER  VI 


OF    THE    PR.£TORS. 


THE  original  of  this  office,  instituted  in  the  year  of  the  city  389, 
is  owing  to  two  occasions;  partly  because  the  consuls  being  very 
often  wholly  taken  up  with  foreign  wars,  found  the  want  of  some 
person  to  administer  justice  in  the  city  ;  and  partly  because  the  no- 
bility, having  lost  their  appropriation  of  the  consulship,  were  am- 
bitious of  procuring  to  themselves  some  new  honour  in  its  room." 
At  the  first,  only  one  was  created,  taking  his  name  «  prxeundo ; 
and  for  the  same  reason  most  of  the  old  Latins  called  their  com- 
manders/^ra?^o  res;  and  the  consuls  are  supposed  to  have  used  that 
title  at  their  first  institution.  A.  U.  C.  501  another  Praetor  was 
added;  and  then  one  of  them  applied  himself  wholly  to  the  pre- 
serving of  justice  among  the  citizens,  with  the  name  o(  Praetor  Ur- 
banus;  while  the  other  appointed  judges  in  all  matters  relating  to 
foreigners.  But  upon  the  taking  in  of  Sicily  and  Sardinia,  A.  U. 
C.  520,  two  more  Praetors  were  created,  to  assist  the  consuls  in  the 
government  of  the  provinces  ;  and  as  many  more  upon  the  entire 
conquest  of  Spain,  A.  U.  C  551.  Sylly  increased  the  number  to 
eio-ht;  Julius  Caesar,  first  to  ten,  and  then  to  sixteen;  the  second 
Triuuiviri,  after  an  extravagant  manner,  to  sixty-four. 

After  this,  sometimes  we  meet  with  twelve  Praetors,  sometimes 
sixteen  or  eighteen:  but,  in  the  declension  of  the  empire,  they  l^ll 
as  low  again  as  three. 

AVhen  the  number  of  the  Proctors  was  thus  increased,  and  the 
Qwestionets,  or  inquirers  into  crimes,  made  perpetual,  and  not  com- 
mitted to  officers  chosen  upon  such  occasions,  the  Prxtor  Urbanus 
(and,  as  Lipsius  thinks,  the  Prxtor  Pcregrinus)  undertook  the  cog- 
nizance of  private  causes,  and  the  other  prxtors  that  of  crimes, 
rhe  latter  therefore  were  sometimes  called  Quxsitores,  quia  quie- 
rrbiml  de  crimine  ;  the  first  barely  ju^  dicebat.  Here  we  must  ob- 
serve the  difference  between  jus  dicere  and  jiulicare ;  the  former 
relates  to  the  Prsetor,  and  signifies  no  more  than  the  allowing  an 
action,  and  granting  judices  for  determining  the  controversy;  the 
other  is  the  proper  office  of  the  Jiidices  allowed  by  the  Prcttor,  and 
denotes  the  actual  hearing  and  deciding  of  a  cause. ^ 


•  T/iv.  lib.  7.  circa,  prir.crp. 


w  V.  Manut.  de  Legibus,  p.  8C6, 


18 


126 


or    THE    CIVIL    GOVERNMEM 


Cn  VPTER  VII 


OF    THE    CENSORS. 

THE  Census,  or  survcv  of  Roman  cilizcns  and  their  cstatCfr 
(from  censeOy  to  rate  or  value),  was  introthu nl  by  hervius  TulliuT* 
the  sixth  king,  but  without  tlie  assignment  of  any  particuhir  ollicer 
to  manage  it ;  and  therefore  he  took  the  trouble  upon  himself,  and 
made  it  part  of  the  regal  duty.  Upon  the  expulsion  of  the  Tarquins, 
the  business  fell  to  the  consuls,  and  continued  in  their  care,  till  their 
dominions  grew  so  large  as  to  give  them  no  leisure  for  its  perform- 
ance. Upon  this  account,  it  was  wholly  omitted  seventeen  years  to 
gether,  till  A.  U.  C.  311,  when  they  found  the  necessity  of  a  new 
magistracy  for  that  employment,  and  thereupon  created  two  censors : 
Their  otiice  was  to  continue  live  years, because,  every  fifth  year,  the 
general  survey  of  the  people  used  to  be  performed:  But  when  they 
grew  to  be  the  most  consiilerable  persons  in  the  s  ate,  for  fear  they 
should  abuse  their  authority,  A.  U.  C.  420,  a  law  passed,  by  which 
their  place  was  confined  to  a  year  and  a  half;  and  therefore,  for  the 
future,  though  they  were  elected  every  five  years,  yet  they  continued 
to  hold  the  honour  no  longer  than  the  time  prefixed  by  that  law. 

After  the  second  Punic  war,  they  were  always  created  outof  sucli 
persons  as  had  been  consuls,  though  it  sometimes  ha])pene<l  other- 
wise before.  Their  station  was  reckoned  more  honourable  than  the 
consulship,  tliough  their  authority,  in  matters  of  state,  was  not  so 
considerable.  And  the  badges  of  the  two  ofticers  were  the  same, 
only  that  the  Censors  were  not  allowed  the  Lictors  to  walk  before 
them,  as  the  consuls  had. 

Lipsius  divides  the  duty  of  the  Censors  into  two  heads ;  the  survey 
of  the  people,  and  the  censure  of  manners.  As  to  the  former,  they 
took  an  exact  account  of  the  estates  and  goods  of  every  person, 
and  accordingly  divided  the  people  into  their  proper  classes  and 
centuries.  Besides  tliis,  they  took  care  of  tiie  public  taxes,  and 
made  laws  in  refeience  to  them.  1  liey  were  inspectors  of  the  pub- 
lic buildings  and  ways,  and  defrayed  the  charges  of  such  sacrifices 
as  were  made  upon  the  common  account. 

With  respect  to  the  latter  part  of  their  office,  they  had  the  power 
to  punish  an  immorality  in  any  ])erson  of  what  order  soever.  The 
senators  they  might  expel  the  house  (se)iatu  tjicere),  which  was 
d<»ne  by  omitting  such  a  uerson  when  they  called  over  the  names. 
The  Ecpiites  they  punished  by  taking  away  the  horse  (equum  adi- 


OF  THE    ROMANS. 


127 


mere)  allowed  them  at  the  public  charge.  The  commons  they  might 
either  remove  from  a  higher  tribe  {tribu  niovere)  to  a  less  honourable, 
or  quite  disable  them  to  give  their  votes  in  the  assemblies;  or  set  a 
tine  upon  them  to  be  paid  to  the  treasury  {in  atritum  tabulas  referrc, 
et  serarium  facer e.)  And  sometimes,  when  a  senator,  or  Eques,  had 
been  guilty  of  any  notorious  irregularity,  he  suft'ered  two  of  these 
punishments,  or  all  three,  at  once. 

Tiie  greatest  part  of  the  Censor's  public  business  was  performed 
every  fifth  year,  when,  after  the  survey  of  the  people,  and  in(|uisition 
into  their  manners,  taken  anciently  in  the  Forum,  and  afterwards 
in  the  Villa  Publica,  the  Censors  made  a  solemn  lustration,  or  ex- 
piatory sacrifice,  in  the  name  of  all  the  people.  The  sacrifice  con- 
sisted of  a  sow,  a  sheep,  and  a  bull;  whence  it  took  the  name  of 
Suovetaurilia,  The  ceremony  of  performing  it  they  called  Luatnim 
comkre  ;  and  upon  this  account  the  space  of  five  years  came  to  be 
signified  by  the  word  Lustrum, 

It  is  very  remarkable,  that  if  one  of  the  Censors  died,  nobody  was 
subsituted  in  his  room  till  the  next  Lustrum,  and  his  partner  was 
obliged  to  quit  his  office;  because  the  death  of  a  Censor  happened 
just  before  the  sacking  of  Rome  by  the  Gauls,  and  was  ever  after 
accounted  highly  ominous  and  unfortunate.* 

This  office  continued  no  longer  than  to  the  time  of  the  emperors, 
who  performed  the  same  duty  at  their  pleasure ;  and  the  Flavian  fa- 
mily, i.  e.  Vespasian  and  his  sons,  took  a  pride  (as  Mi .  Walker  ob- 
serves) to  be  called  Censors,  and  put  this  among  their  other  titles 
upon  their  coins.  Decius  the  emperor  entered  on  a  design  of  restor- 
ing*-the  honour  to  a  particular  magistrate,  as  heretofore,  but  without 
any  success.^ 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


OF  THE  QUyESTORS. 


THE  original  of  the  Quaestors  [a  quaerendo,  from  getting  in  the 
revenues  of  the  state)  Dionysius''  and  Livy''  place  about  A.  U.  C. 
269.  Plutarch,  indeed,  with  some  small  diffiirence,  refers  tiieir  in- 
stitution to  the  time  of  Valerius   Poplicola,  when  he  allotted  the 


*  Liv.  hb.  4  chap.  9  Plat  Probl.  59.         •  Lib  8. 
y  Ot  Coins  and  Meduls  ^  Lib,  3. 

^  Trebel.  Poll,  in  Decio. 


128 


OF  THE  CIVIL  GOVERNMENT 


temple  of  Saturn  for  the  treasury,  (to  which  use  it  always  served  al- 
terwads,)  and  granted  the  people  the  liberty  of  cho(»sing  two  young 
men  for  the  treasurers.  This  was  the  whole  number  at  the  begin- 
ning; but  afterwarils  two  others  were  created,  A.  U.  C.  332,  to  take 
care  of  the  payment  of  the  armies  abroad,  of  the  selling  plunder 
and  booty,  ^'c.  For  which  purpose  they  generally  accompanied  the 
consuls  in  their  expeditions;  and  upon  this  account  were  distin- 
guished from  the  other  Quxstors,  by  the  name  o^ Peregrmi,  and  gave 
tliem  occasion  to  assume  the  title  of  Urbani,  This  number  continued 
till  the  entire  contest  of  Italy  ;  and  then  it  was  again  doubled,  A. 
U.  C.  439.  The  four  that  were  now  added,  had  their  residence, 
with  the  Proconsuls  and  Propraetors,  in  the  provinces,  where  they 
employed  themselves  in  regulating  the  taxes  and  customs  due  from 
thence  to  the  state.  Sylla  the  dictator,  as  Tacitus  informs  us '  cre- 
ated twenty  Quiiistors  to  fill  up  the  senate  ;  and  Dio  mentions  the 
creating  of  forty  by  Julius  Caesar  upon  the  same  design. 

The  chief  offices  of  the  Quxstors  were  the  receiving,  lodging, 
and  carrying  on  ambassadors,  and  the  keeping  the  decrees  of  senate 
appointed  them  by  Augustus,'  which  before  had  been  under  the 
care  of  the  J^'.diles  and  Tribunes. 

From  hence  came  the  two  offices  of  Quosstor  Principis  or  Aiigiis- 
/t,  called  sometimes  CamUdaitfs  Principis,  described  by  Brisonius,' 
and  resembling  the  office  of  our  secretary  of  state  ;  and  Quaestor 
Palatiiy  instituted  by  Constantine  the  Great;  answering  in  most 
respects  to  the  place  of  the  lord  chancellor  amongst  us.  Perhapi?  we 
ought  not  here  to  make  a  distinction  of  offices;  the  Quaestors  Can- 
didal being  honoured  by  (\)nstantine  with  the  new  title  of  Quxs- 
tores  Palatii,  and  admitted  to  greater  trust  and  more  important  bu- 
siness.' 

The  Quxstorship  was  the  first  office  any  person  could  bear  in  the 
cominouvvealth,  and  might  be  undertaken  at  the  age  of  twenty-four 
or  twenty-five  years. 


Plut.  in  Po|)lic(>l 
'  Annal.  lib.  1. 
Lib.  4;. 


♦Dio.  lib.  54. 

R  i>iic«;l    At'tiquitat.  lib   1.  chap.  16. 

'»Xotit.  Dig^nilat  Imp  Orient,  chap.  7 


OF  THE  ROMANS. 


199 


CHAPTER  IX. 


OF  THE  TRIBUNES  OF  THE  TEGPLE. 

THIS  office  owes  its  original  to  a  quarrel  between  the  nobility 
and  commons,  about  A.  U.  C.  260;  when  the  latter  making  a  de- 
fection, could  not  be  reduced  into  order,  till  they  had  obtained  the 
privilege  of  choosing  some  magistrates  out  of  their  own  body,  for  the 
defence  of  their  liberties,  and  to  interpose  in  all  grievances,  and  im- 
positions offered  by  their  superiors.  At  first  only  two  Mere  elected  ; 
but  three  more  were  quickly  added;  and  about  A.  U.  C.297,  the 
number  was  made  up  to  ten,  which  continued  ever  after. 

Their  authority  was  extraordinary  ;  for,  though  at  first  they  pre- 
tended only  to  be  a  sort  of  protectors  of  the  commons,  and  redressers 
of  public  grievances,  yet  afterwards  they  usurped  the  power  of  do- 
ing almost  whatever  they  pleased,  having  the  whole  populace  to 
back  and  secure  theni ;  and  therefore  they  assembled  the  people, 
preferred  laws,  made  decrees,  and  executed  them  upon  the  magis- 
trates themselves  ;  and  sometimes  commanded  the  very  consuls  to 
be  carried  to  prison ;  and  were,  without  question,  the  authors  of  far 
greater  animosities  between  the  nobles  and  conunons,  than  thev 
were  at  first  created  to  appease. 

That  which  gained  them  the  greatest  security,  was  their  repute 
of  being  sacrosimcti,  which  they  confirmed  by  a  law ;  so  that  it  was 
reckoned  the  highest  act  of  impiety  to  offer  them  the  least  injury,  or 
so  much  as  to  interrupt  them  when  they  were  speaking.  Their  in- 
terposing in  matters  determined  by  the  senate,or  other  magistrates, 
was  called  Intercession  and  was  performed  by  standing  up,  and  pro- 
nouncing only  one  word,  VETO, 

As  for  the  ensigns  of  their  office,  they  had  no  Pr^texta,  Lictors, 
nor  Curule  chair;  and  only  a  sort  of  a  beadle,  whom  they  called 
viator,  went  before  them. 

Sylla  the  dictator  was  the  first  who  dared  to  put  a  stop  to  the  en- 
croachments of  the  Tribunes;  but  they  soon  recovered  their  old 
power  again,  till  the  time  of  the  emperors,  who  left  them  very  little 
but  the  name  and  shadow  of  magistrates.  This  they  effected  bv 
several  means,  but  particularly  by  obliging  the  people  to  confer  the 
same  power  and  authority  on  themselves ;  whence  they  were  said 
to  be  Trihunitin  potesfate  donati :  for  they  could  not  be  directly 
Tribuni,  unless  their  family  had  been  Plebeian. 

'  Dionvs  lib.  9.     Liv.  lib.  2,  8cc. 


VGO 


OF    TilE    CIVIL    GOVERNMENI 


CII APrEll  X. 


OF    THE    .fLDlLES. 

THE  coniinoiis  liad  no  sooner  prevailed  with  the  senate  to  con- 
lirni  the  office  of  Tribunes,  but  they  obtained  farther  the  privilege 
to  choose  yearly,  out  of  tl»eir  own  body,  two  more  officers,  to  assist 
tiiose  ma-istrates  in  the  dischar-e  of  some  particular  services,-  the 
chief  of  which  was  the  care  of  public  edifices,  whence  they  borrowed 
their  name,  llosinus,  for  distinction's  sake  calls  them  .^:dilcs  Pie- 
bis.  Besides  the  duty  mentioned  above,  they  had  several  other 
omjiloyments  of  lesser  note  ;  as  to  attend  on  the  Tribunes  of  the 
pe..ple,  and  to  judge  some  inferior  causes  by  their  deputation ;  to 
rectify  the  weights  and  measures,  prohibit  unlawful  games,  and  the 

like.  ' 

A.  U.  C.  389,  two  more  ^diles  were  elected  out  of  the  nobdity, 
to  inspect  the  public  games.^  They  were  called  jEdilcs  Cuniles, 
because  they  had  the  honour  of  using  the  Sella  Curulis  ;  the  name 
of  which  is  generally  derived  o  curni,'  because  they  sat  upon  it  as 
they  rode  in  their  chariots;  but  Lipsius  fancies  it  owes  its  name,  as 
well  as  its  invention,  to  the  Curetes,  a  people  of  the  Sabines. 

The  Curule  .^dilcaheii'xd^^  their  proper  office,  were  to  take  care 
of  the  buildings  and  reparation  of  temples,  theatres,  baths,  and  other 
noble  structures;  and  were  appointed  judges  in  all  cases  relating 
to  the  selling  or  exchanging  of  estates. 

Julius  C.rsar,  A.  U.  C.  710,  added  two  more  iF.diles  out  of  the 
nobility,  with  the  title  of  .^dlles  Ctreaks,  from  Ceres,  because  then- 
business  was  to  inspect  the  public  stores  of  corn  and  other  provi- 
sions ;  to  supervise  all  the  commodities  exposed  in  the  markets,  and 
to  punish  delinciuentsin  all  matters  concerning  buying  and  selling.- 

i  Dlonvs  Ub.  6.  -  L.    I  b  6  et  7.  •  A.  GelU.b.  3.  chap.  1« 

>.  Dib.  lib.  A^.  cl  Pomi)on.  lib.  2.  V.  de  Ong.  Juris 


OF    THE    ROMANS. 


151 


CHAPTER  XI. 


OF    THE    DECEMVIRI. 


AHOCT  the  year  of  Rome  291,  the  people,  thinking  it  a  very 
iireat  srrievance,  that  thou;j;h  thev  had  freed  themselves  from  the 
government  of  the  kings,  yet  still  the  whole  decision  of  equity  and 
justice  should  lie  in  the  breast  of  the  supreme  magistrates,  without 
any  written  statute  to  direct  them  ;  proposed  to  the  senate  by  their 
Tribunes,  that  standing  laws  might  be  made,  which  the  city  should 
use  for  ever.     The  business  hung  in  suspense  several  years ;  at  last 
it  was  concluded  to  send  ambassadors  to  Athens,  and  other  Grecian 
cities,  to  make  collections  out  of  the  best  of  their  constitutions,  for 
the  service  of  their  country  in  the  new  design.     Upon  the  return  of 
the  commissioners,  the  Tribunes  claiming  the  promise  of  the  senate, 
to  allow  them  a  new  magistracy  for  putting  the  project  in  execu- 
tion, it  was  agreed,  that  ten  men  out  of  the  chief  Senators  should 
be  elected  ;  tlmt  their  power  should  be  equal  to  that  of  the  Kings, 
or  Councils,  for  a  whole  year;  and  that,  in  the  mean  time,  all  other 
offices  should  cease.     The  Decemviri  having  now  taken  the  govern- 
ment upon  them,  agreed  that  only  one  of  them  should  at  any  time 
enjoy  the  Fasces  and  other  consular  ornaments,  should  assemble 
the  senate,  confirm  decrees,  and  act  in  all  respects  as  supreme  ma- 
gistrate.    To  this  honour  they  were  to  succeed  by  turns,  till  the 
year  was  out ;  and  the  rest  were  obliged  to  diiler  very  little  in  their 
iuibits  from  private  persons,  to  give  the  people  the  less  suspicion  of 
tyranny  and  absolute  government. 

At  length,  having  drawn  up  a  model  out  of  such  laws  as  had  been 
brought  fiom  Greece,  and  the  customs  of  their  own  country,  they 
exposed  it  to  the  public  view  in  ten  tables,  liberty  being  given  for 
any  person  to  make  exceptions.  Upon  the  general  approbation  of 
the  citizens,  a  decree  passed  for  the  ratification  of  the  new  laws, 
which  was  performed  in  the  presence  of  the  priests  and  augurs,  in  a 
most  solemn  and  religious  manner. 

This  year  being  expired,  a  farther  continuance  of  this  office  was 
voted  necessary,  because  something  seemed  yet  to  be  wanting  for  the 
perfecting  of  the  design.  The  Decemviri,  who  had  procured  them- 
selves the  honour  in  the  new  election,  quickly  abused  their  authority ; 
and,  under  pretence  of  reforming  the  commonwealth,  shewed  them- 
selves the  greatest  violators  of  justice  and  honesty.  Two  more  tables. 


132 


OF    THE    CIVIL    GOVERNM£M 


OF    THL    ROMANS. 


133 


indeed,  they  added  to  the  hist,  and  so  secmeci  to  have  answeretl  the 
intent  of  their  institution;  yet  they  not  only  kept  their  othce  the  re- 
niiiinin;;  part  of  that  year,  but  usurped  it  again  the  next,  without  any 
re"-ard  to  tiie  approbation  of  the  senate  or  people.  And  though  there 
was  some  stir  made  in  the  city  for  putting  a  stop  to  their  tyranny, 
yet  they  maintained  their  absolute  power,  till  an  action  of  their  chief 
leader  Appius  gave  a  final  ruin  to  their  authority:  For  he,  falling 
desperately  in  love  with  Virginia,  the  daughter  of  a  Plebeian,  and 
prosecuting  his  passion  by  sucli  unlawful  means,  as  to  cause  the  kill- 
ing of  her  by  her  own  father  (the  story  of  which  is  told  at  large  by 
JA\y)  gave  an  occasion  of  a  mutiny  in  the  army,  and  a  general  dis- 
like through  the  whole  city;  so  that  it  was  agreed  m  the  senate,  to 
let  the  same  form  of  government  return,  which  was  in  force  at  the 
creation  of  tiie  Decemviri." 


Both  parties  readily  embraced  this  proposal,  and  accordingly  pro- 
ceeded  to  an  election  ;  where,  though  tiie  whole  design  of  this  stir 
had  been  purely  to  increa>e  the  honour  of  tiie  commons,  yet,  w  hen 
the  matter  came  to  be  put  to  the  vote,  they  chose  none  of  that  order 
to  the  new  magistracy,  but  conferred  the  honour  on  three  of  the 
most  eminent  Patricians,  with  the  title  of  Trlhuni  Militum  Comida' 
ri  Potestate,  about  A.  U.C.  310. 

The  first  Tribunes,  having  held  their  dignity  no  longer  than 
iieventy  days,  were  obliged  to  quit  it,  by  reason  that  the  augurs  had 
discovered  some  flaw  in  their  election  ;  and  so  the  government  re- 
turned to  its  former  course,  the  supreme  command  resting  in  the 
hands  of  the  Consuls.  Afterwards,  they  were  some  years  chosen, 
and  some  years  passed  by,  haviiig  risen  from  three  to  six,  and  after- 
wards to  eight,  and  the  Plebeians  being  admitted  to  a  share  m  the 
honour;  till,  abuVt  A.  U.  C.  388,  they  were  entirely  laid  aside. 


\ 


CIIAPTKR  XII. 

tlUnUM    MILITUM    CONSULAHl    POTEST  ATE. 

UPON  the  conclusion  of  the  Decemvirate,  the  first  consuls  that 
were  elected,  appearing  highly  inclined  to  favour  the  commons,  gave 
them  such  an  opportunity  of  getting  a  head  in  the  state,  that,  within 
three  years  afterwards,  they  had  the  confidence  to  petition  for  the 
privilege  of  being  made  capable  of  the  consulship,  which  had  been 
hitherto  denied  them.     The  stiflest  of  the  Patricians  violently  op- 
posed  their  reipiest,  as  a  fair  means  to  ruin  their  honour  and  au- 
thority, and  to  bring  all  persons,  of  whatever  <iuality ,  upon  the  same 
level.     But  a  war  casually  breaking  out  at  the  same  time  in  the  con- 
federate countries,  which  the  Romans  were  obliged  to  assist,  the 
Consuls,  by  reason  of  the  dissensions  upon  this  account  in  the  city, 
could  not,  with  all  their  diligence,  procure  any  levies  to  be  made, 
because  the  Tribunes  of  the  commons  opposed  all  their  orders,  and 
would  let  no  soldiers  be  listed,  till  their  petition  had  been  canvassed 
in  the  senate.     In  this  exigency,  the  fathers  were  called  togrther  ; 
and,  after  the  business  had  been  a  long  time  debated  with  great  heat 
and'tumult,at  last  pitched  upon  this  expedient:  That  three  magis- 
trates  should  be  elected  out  of  each  order,  who  being  invested  with 
the  whole  consular  power,  at  the  end  of  the  year,  it  should  be  in 
the  liberty  of  the  senate  and  people  to  have  that  office  or  Consuls 

for  the  following  year. 

ft  Liv.  lib.  :"^      Dionys.  fib.  B. 


CHAPTER  XIIl. 

OF  THE  CIVIL  OFFICERS  OF  LESS  NOTE,  OR  OF  LESS  FRERUENT  OCCUR- 
RENCE IN  AUTHORS,  TOGETHER  WITH  THE  PUBLIC  SERVANTS. 

THERE  are  several  officers  behind  who  deserve  little  more  than 
to  be  named ;  some  by  reason  of  their  low  station  in  the  common- 
wealth, others  because  they  are  very  seldom  mentioned  in  our  or- 
dinary classics.     Among  whom  we   may  take  notice  of  these  that 

follow  : 

Interrex,  the  supreme  magistrate  who  governed  between  the  death 
of  one  king  and  the  election  of  another.  This  office  was  taken  by 
turns  by  the  Senators,  continuing  in  the  hands  of  every  man  five 
days,**  or,  if  we  believe  Plutarch,  only  twelve  hours  at  a  time.  We 
sometimes  meet  with  an  Inferrex  under  the  consular  government, 
createdtoholdassemblies,  when  the  ordinary  magistrates  were  either 
absent,  or  disabled  to  act  by  reason  of  their  undue  election, 

Tribunus,  or  Praefectus  Celerwn,  the  captain  of  Romulus's  life- 
guard which  consisted  of  three  hundred  of  the  stoutest  young  men, 
and  of  the  best  families  in  the  city,  under  tlie  name  of  Celeres,  of 
liglit-horse.  After  the  expulsion  of  the  kings,  the  Maguter  Eqai- 
turn  held  the  same  place  and  command  under  the  Dictator^,  and 
the  Praefectus  Prabtorio  under  the  emperors. 

Pratfectus  Urbis,  a  sort  of  mayor  of  the  city,  created  by  Augus- 


Liv.  lib.  4,     Dionys.  lib.  11. 


p  Dionys-  lib.  2.  Liv.  lib.  1. 
19 


1 1n  Numa. 


■  :7< 

it 


l.ii 


OF   THE   CIVIL   GOVERNMENT 


OF    THE    ROMANS. 


IS.'i 


tus,  bv  the  advice  of  his  favourite  Maecenas,  upon  whom  at  first  he 
conferred  the  new  honour.'  He  was  to  precede  all  other  city  mag;is- 
trates,  liaving  power  to  receive  appeals  from  the  inferior  courts,  and 
to  decide  almost  all  causes  within  the  limits  of  Rome,  or  a  hundred 
miles  round.  Before  this  there  was  sometimes  a  Pnefectus  Urbis 
created,  when  the  kin<;s  or  greater  officers  were  absent  from  the 
city,  to  administer  justice  in  their  room.* 

Pnefectus  JErurii,  an  officer  chosen  out  of  such  persons  as  had 
discharged  the  office  of  Prxtor,  by  Augustus,  to  supervise  and  regu- 
late the  public  funil  which  he  raised  for  the  maintenance  of  the  ar- 
my.   This  project  was  revived  by  several  of  his  successors. 

Pnffcctu.^  PndoriOy  created  by  the  same  em|>eror,  to  command 
thePixt(uian  cohorts,  or  his  life  guard,  uho  borrowed  their  name 
fnmi  the  Prsetoriitm,  or  general's  tent,  all  commanders  in  chief  be- 
ing anciently  styled  Prsetons.  His  office  answered  exactly  to  that  ot 
the  Magisfer  Eqidtum  under  the  old  Directors  ;  only  his  authority 
was  of  greater  extent,  being  generally  the  highest  person  in  favour 
with  the  armv  ;  and  therefore,  when  the  soldiers  once  came  to  make 
their  own  emperors,  the  common  man  they  pitched  upon  was  the 
PraefectuH  Pneturlo. 

Pro'feclus  Frumcnti,  and  PrR^fectus  Vigiluniy  both  owing  their  in- 
stitution to  the  same  Augustus.  The  first  was  to  inspect  and  regu- 
late the  distribution  of  corn,  which  used  to  be  often  made  among  the 
common  pooj)le.  The  other  commanded  in  chief  all  the  soldiers  ap 
pointed  for  a  constant  watch  to  the  city,  being  a  cohort  to  every  two 
regions.  His  business  was  to  take  cognizance  of  thieves,  incendia 
lies,  idle  vagrants,  and  the  like  ;  and  hatl  the  power  to  punish  all 
petty  misdemeanours,  which  were  thought  too  trivial  to  come  undej 
the  care  (d'  the  Pnefectun  Urbis. 

In  many  of  tliese  inferior  magistracies,  several  persons  were  join- 
ed in  comnilssiim  together;  and  tlien  they  took  their  name  from  tlie 
number  of  men  that  composed  them.  Of  this  sort  we  meet  with  the 
Triumvirly  or  Trcsviri  CupUaksy  the  keeper  of  the  public  gaol ;  they 
had  the  power  to  punish  malefactors,  like  our  masters  of  the  house- 
of  correction  ;  for  which  service  they  kept  eight  Lictors  under  them  : 
as  may  be  gathered  from  Plautus  : 

Quidfaciam  nunc  si  Tresviri  tne  in  carcercm  lompegevint? 

Jnde  eras  e  prnvifttu<v  i.i  celUi  kepfornar  adjiagruni  : 

Ita  quasi  iniudem  nic  iniscevum  octu  homines  validi  CTilent.^'^ 

Triumviri  Noctu mi ytmQiitioin^xX  by  Livy'  and  Tacitus,^  institut- 
ed for  tiie  prevention  of  fires  in  the  night. 


Triumviri  Monetales,  tlie  masters  of  the  mint:  Sometimes  their 
name  was  wrote  Triumviri  A  A.  .E,  F.  F.  standing  for  Auro,  Ar- 
geniOy^Ere^  Flando,  Fcricndo. 

Quatuor  Viri  Viarum  curandarum,  persons  deputed  by  the  Cen- 
sor to  supervise  the  public  ways. 

Centumviri,  and  Decemviri  Litibus  judicandis :  The  first  were  a 
bo«iy  of  men  chosen,  three  out  of  every  tribe,  for  the  judging  of  such 
maimers  as  the  Prsetors  committed  to  their  decision  ;  which  are 
reckoned  up  by  Cicero  in  his  first  book  de  Orutore,  The  Decemviri 
seem  lo  have  been  the  principal  members  of  the  Ctntumvirate yiiinl  to 
have  ;  resided,  under  the  Praetor,  in  the  Judicia  Centumviralia. 
These  were  some  of  the  first  steps  to  preferment  for  persons  of  parts 
and  industry ;  as  was  also  the  ViginiiviratiiSy  mentioned  by  Cicero, 
Tacitus,  and  I)io  ;  which  perhaps  was  no  more  than  a  select  part 
of  the  Centumviri.  The  proper  sign  of  authority,  when  these 
judges  acted,  was  the  setting  up  a  spear  in  the  Forum: 


Sen  trepidos  ad  jura  decern  citat  hasta  viroruni, 
K^eu  Ji  inure  jubet  conteno  Judice  causum. 


Lucas", 


'  Dion.  lib.  52.  Tacit.  Annal.  4,  5.       "  In  Ampliitr. 
'■  Ibkl.  '  IJioii.  lib.  .53.  w  Annal.  lib.  5. 


Lib.  9. 


The  learned  Graevius  observes,  that  a  spear  was  the  common 
badge  and  ensign  of  power  among  the  ancients,  and  therefore  given 
to  the  gods  in  the  statues,  and  to  kings  and  princes  till  it  was  suc- 
ceeded by  the  sceptre.^  A  spear  was  likewise  set  up  at  the  col- 
lections of  the  taxes  by  the  Censors;  and  at  all  auctions,  public  oi 
private,  to  signify  that  they  were  done  by  a  lawful  commission  ; 
whence  the  phrase,  sub  hasta  vemJi. 

There  are  other  officers  of  as  little  note  behind,  who  had  no  fixed 
authority,  but  were  constituted  upon  S'une  particular  occasions  ; 

such  as  the 

Duumviri  Perducl/ionis,  sive  Capitalcs,  ollicers  created  for  the 
jud^-ing  of  traitors.  They  were  first  introduced  by  Tullus  Hostilius ; 
continued  as  often  as  necessity  required,  under  the  rest  of  tlie  kings, 
and  sometimes  under  the  consular  government,  at  its  first  institu- 
tion. But  after  they  had  been  laid  down  many  years,  as  unneces- 
sary, Cicero,  in  the  later  times  of  the  commonwealth,  complains  of 
their  revival  bv  Labienus,  Tribu.iC  of  the  commons. ^ 

QuxstoreSy  or  Qusestorcs  Parricidii  vel  Rerum  CapituUmUy  ma- 
gistrates chosen  by  the  people  to  give  judgment  in  capital  causes, 
after  the  Consuls  were  denied  that  privilege,  and  before  the  Qiiasti- 
ones  were  made  perpetual. 

Tlie  public  servants  of  the  magistrates  had  the  common  name  of 
ApparitoreSy  from  the  word  appareo,  because  they  always  stood  ready 

X  Praia',  n.  Tom.  Tht-sau  .  Aiitiq    l{'>m. 

■'  Cicero,  Orat.  pro  C.  Kaoirio  Perduellionis  reo. 


t 


I'Jti 


VI     THK    CIVIL    GUVKKNMKNT 


OF  TUT.  ROMANS. 


1:^7 


to  execute  (heir  masters'  orders.     01   the^e  the  most  remarkable 
were  the 

Srrih.r,  a  sort  of  |)uMic  notaries,  who  took  an  arcount  of  all  the 
proeeeilini!;s  in  the  courts:  In  some  measure,  too,  they  aiiswered  to 
our  attorjiies,  inasmuch  as  tiiey  drew  up  the  papers  and  vvritiny;»^ 
which  were  prjuluced  before  the  judges;  No/anus  and  Jktuarhis 
siy-iiil  vlnu:  much  the  same  ollice. 

^iciend  and  Pnt'conrs,  the  |)ublic  criers,  who  were  to  call  wit- 
nesses, si'j;iiil'v  the  adj<»urnment  of  the  couit,  and  the  like.  The 
tbrmer  had  i\w  name  from  trrrieo,  dml  the  other  IVom  jn'ifrieo.  'I'l»e 
Praconv.s  seem  to  have  had  mure  liusiness  assi^ne<l  them  than  the 
Accemi ;  as,  the  proclaimini:;  thinij^s  in  the  street;  the  assisting  at 
publi<'  sales,  to  declare  how  much  every  one  bids;  whereas  the 
Arcnisi  more  nearly  attende<l  on  the  ma;:;ist rates,  and,  at  the  ben<  h 
of  justice,  ,i:;ave  notice,  every  thiee  hours,  what  it  was  o'clock. 

JAvlnrvs,  the  serjeant>,  or  beadles,  who  carried  the  y«srrv  before 
the  supreme  njau;istrates,  as  the  lnterre«res.  Dictators,  Consuls,  and 
Prxtors.  Besides  this,  tlu'y  weie  the  j)ublic  executioners  in  scourn;- 
in^  \\\n\  beheadini;. 

The  Lictms  weie  taken  out  of  the  common  peojde,  wliereas  the 
m'h'cvnHi  jrcnerally  belonji^ed  \o  the  body  of  the  Librrtini,'dm\  some- 
limes  to  that  of  the  lAhvrtl.'- 

The  I'iatorcs  were  little  dillerent  from  the  former,  only  tliat  they 
went  before  the  ollicers  of  less  diii;nity,  and  particularly  before  the 
Tribunes  of  the  commons. 

In  ancient  tinges  tliey  were  used  to  call  the  |)lain  Senators  out  of 
the  country,  whence  'i'ully  in  his  Cato  Major  derives  their  name  ;  as 
if  thev  were  to  plv  about  the  roads  and  parks,  ancl  to  pick  up  an 
assembly  of  rural  fatners,  who  perhaps  were  then  employed  in  driv- 
ing;, or  kee])inoj  their  own  sheep. 

We  must  not  forget  the  Carmfcx,  or  common  hangman,  w:hose 
business  lay  only  in  crucifixions.  Cicero  has  a  very  good  observa- 
tion concerning;  him  ;  that,  bv  reason  of  the  odiousness  of  his  oflice, 
he  was  particularly  forbid  by  the  laws  to  have  his  dwelling-house 
within  the  city." 

^-  S»,m)n  dc  Antiq  Jur.  Giv.  Kum    V.lv  0.  chap.  15.        •»  Cicero  pro  Kabirio. 


(  HAPTER  \IV. 

OK  TIIK    PROVINCIAL  M  AGISTR  \TFS  ;   AND    FIRST   OF  TIIK  PROCNSII.S. 

TIIK  chief  (dilie  j)rovincial  ollicers  were  the  Proconsuls.  A\'he- 
ther  the  woid  ou^ht  to  be  written  Proconsul,  and  derlined,  or  Pro- 
conaulCf  and  undeclined, 

(Jrawvialici  certuut,  et  mlliuv  sub  judicr  lis  Pf:t. 

We  mav  divide  these  matcist rates  into  four  sorts: 

Fir.sfy  Such  ar»  being  Consuls,  had  their  oflice  prolonged  beyond 
the  time  jirefixed  by  law. 

Secondly y  Such  as  were  invested  with  this  honour,  either  for  the 
government  of  the  provinces,  or  the  command  in  war,  who  before 
were  only  in  a  private  station. 

77///'<//?/,  Such  as  immediately  upon  the  expiration  of  their  consul- 
ship, went  Proconsuls  into  the  provinces,  in  the  time  of  the  common- 
wealth. 

Fourlhlijy  Such  governors  as,  in  the  times  of  the  empire,  were 
sent  into  those  provinces  which  fell  to  the  share  of  the  people. 

Proconsuls  of  the  two  former  sorts  we  meet  with  very  rarely,  on- 
ly liivy  gives  us  an  examjile  of  each.** 

The  third  kintl  more  properly  enjoyed  the  name  and  dignity,  and 
therefore  deserve  to  be  described  at  large,  with  reference  to  their 
creation,  administration,  and  return  from  their  command. 

They  were  not  appointed  by  the  people,  but  when  at  the  Comitia 
Centuriata  new  Consuls  were  designed  for  the  following  year;  one 
of  the  present  Con>uls  proposed  to  tlie  senate  what  province  they 
would  declare  consular,  and  what  prxtorian,  to  be  divided  amoiiir 
the  designed  Consuls  and  Praetors.  According  to  their  determina- 
tion, the  designed  Consuls,  or  Consuls  elect,  presently  agreed  what 
provinces  to  enter  upon  at  the  expiration  of  their  office  in  the  city, 
the  business  being  generally  decided  by  casting  lots. 

Afterwards,  in  the  time  of  tlieir  consulship,  tliey  formerly  got  leave 
of  the  people  to  undertake  the  military  command,  which  could  not 
be  otherwise  obtained.  Besides  this,  they  procured  a  decree  of  se- 
nate, to  determine  the  extent  of  their  provinces,  the  number  of  their 
forces,  the  pay  that  should  be  allowed  them,  with  all  other  necessa- 
ries for  their  journey  and  settlement. 

By  the  passing  of  this  decree,  they  were  said  ronari  provinrid  ;  and 


kUv.  Ub.  8.chap.26 


13S 


OF  THE  CIVIL  GOVERNMENT 


OF  THE  ROMANb. 


139 


Cicero  uses  in  the  same  sense  ornari  apparUnribiiff,  scriblsy  Sfc.  avIio 
nia<|p  a  part  of  the  l*roconsul's  retinue. 

Notliin":  now  remained,  but  at  the  end  of  tlie  year  to  set  forward 
for  their  new  ji;overnment.  But  we  must  observe,  that  though  ilie 
senate  had  given  them  leave  to  depart,  jet  the  Tribunes  of  tlie  com- 
mons had  power  to  stop  their  journey  ;  arid  therefore,  because  Cras- 
sus  went  Proconsul  into  Parthia,  contrary  to  the  express  order  of 
the  Tribune,  he  was  generally  believed  to  have  lost  the  Roman  army 
and  Ids  own  life  as  a  jud^^ment  on  him  for  despisinj:  the  authority  of 
that  ollicer,  whom  they  always  counted  sacrosanct  us. 

At  their  first  entrance  on  their  province,  they  spent  some  time  in 
conference  with  their  immediate  predecessor,  to  be  informed  of  the 
state  of  things,  though  their  administration  began  the  very  day  of 
their  arrival. 

Their  authority,  both  civil  and  military,  w^as  very  extraordinaiy. 
The  winter  they  generally  spent  in  the  execution  of  the  first,  and  the 
summer  in  the  discharge  of  the  latter. 

They  decided  cases  of  equity  and  justice,  either  privately  in  their 
PriXitorium  or  palace,  where  they  received  petitioners,  heard  com- 
plaints, granted  writs  under  their  seals,  and  the  like  ;  or  else  pub- 
lickly  in  the  common-hall,  with  tlie  usual  ceremonies  and  formali- 
ties observed  in  courts  of  judicature,  the  processes  being  in  all  res- 
pects the  same  as  those  at  Rome. 

Besides  this,  by  virtue  of  their  edicts,  they  had  the  power  of  or- 
dering all  things  relating  to  the  Tribunes,  taxes,  contributions,  and 
provisions  of  corn  and  money,  and  v>hatever  else  belonged  to  the 
chief  administration  of  atVairs. 

Their  return  from  the  command  was  very  remarkable.  They 
either  met  their  successor  at  his  arrival,  and  immediately  delivered 
into  his  hands  the  charge  of  the  army,  being  obliged  to  leave  the  pro- 
vince in  thirty  days  ;  or  else  they  came  away  beforehand,  and  left. a 
deputy  in  their  room  to  perform  the  solemnity  of  a  resignation,  hav- 
ing first  made  up  their  accounts  and  left  them  in  writing  in  the  two 
chief  cities  of  their  several  provinces. 

Upon  the  arrival  at  Rome,  if  they  had  no  thoughts  of  a  trium])h, 
they  presently  dismissed  their  train,  and  entered  the  city  as  private 
persons.  If  they  aspired  to  that  honour,  they  still  retained  the  fasces, 
and  other  proconsular  ornaments,  and  gave  the  senate  (assembled 
for  that  purpose  in  the  temple  of  Bellona)  a  relation  of  their  actions 
and  exploits,  and  petitioned  for  a  triumph.  But  in  both  cases  they 
were  obliged  to  give  in  their  accounts  into  the  public  treasury  with- 
in thirtv  (lavs. 

Though  the  Procon?uls  ordered  matters  as  they  pleased  during 


iheir  honour;  yet  at  their  return,  a  very  strict  enquiry  was  made 
into  the  whole  course  of  their  government;  and  upon  the  discovery 
of  any  ill  dealing,  it  was  usual  to  prefer  bills  against  them,  and 
bring  them  to  a  formal  trial.  The  crimes  most  commonly  objected 
against  them  were,  crimen  peculatks,  relating  to  the  ill  use  of  the 
public  numey,  and  the  deficiency  of  their  accounts;  mujcsiaiis,  of 
treachery  and  perfidiousness  against  the  commonwealth  ;  or  repe- 
tundarum,  of  oppression  or  extortion  exercised  upon  the  inhabitants 
of  the  provinces,  whom,  as  their  allies  and  confederates,  the  Ro- 
mans were  obliged  to  patronize  and  defend. 

Augustus,  when,  at  the  desire  of  the  senate  and  people,  he  assumed 
the  sole  government  of  the  empire,  among  other  constitutions  at  the 
beginning  of  his  reign,  divided  the  provinces  into  two  parts,  one  of 
which  he  gave  wholly  over  to  the  people,  and  reserved  tlie  other  for 
himself.  After  which  time  only  the  governors  sent  into  the  first 
division  bore  the  name  of  Proconsuls  ;  though  they  were  denied  the 
whole  military  power,  and  so  fell  short  of  the  old  Proconsuls. 

To  these  four  sorts  of  Proconsuls,  we  mav  add  two  more  from 
Alexander  of  Naples: 

First,  such  as  the  senate  created  Proconsuls  without  a  province, 
purely  for  the  couimand  of  the  army,  and  the  care  of  the  military 
discipline  ;  and,  secondly,  such  designed  consuls  as  entered  on  theiV 
proconsular  office,  before  they  were  admitted  to  the  consulship. 


CHAP.  XV, 

OF    THE    PKOVlNCIAL    PR.ETOKS    AND    PKOPR^TORS;    OF    THE    LEGATI, 

qU^STORS,   AND   PROQL  .ESTORS. 

IN  the  first  times  of  the  commonwealth,  the  provinces  were  go- 
verned by  Praetors,  and  as  the  dominions  of  the  state  were  enlarged, 
the  number  of  those  magistrates  was  accordingly  increased  ;  yet 
even  in  those  times,  if  they  continued  in  the  command  of  the  pro- 
vince beyond  the  time  prefi^xed  for  the  continuance  of  their  Pr;:Etor. 
ship,  they  took  upon  them  the  names  of  Propraetors,  though  thej 
still  kept  the  same  authority  as  before. 

About  A.  U.  C.  604,  the  designed  Praetors  began  to  divide  the 
praetorian  or  lesser  provinces  by  lot,  in  the  same  manner  as  the  Con- 
suls did  the  consular;  and,  when  at  the  end  of  the  year  thev  repair- 


4t*^ 


ilU 


OF  THi:  CIVIL  Government 


ed  to  tlioir  respective  goveirmients,  thev  asMimed  the  title  of  Pro- 
r)r;Etors.  As  their  creation  was  the  same  as  that  of  the  Procon- 
suls; so  their  entrance  upon  their  otfice,  and  the  whole  course  ol 
their  administration,  was  exactly  answerable  to  theirs;  only  that 
thev  were  allowed  but  six  Lictors,  with  an  etjual  number  ot^  fasces, 
v^hereas  the  proconsuls  had  twelve  of  each. 

Now  th()U<»h,  before  tlie  time  of  Augustus,  the  Proprxtors,  by 
leason  of  their  presiding  over  the  provinces  of  lesser  note  and  im- 
portance, were  always  reckoned  inferior  to  the  Proconsuls;  yet 
upon  his  division  of  the  provinces,  the  governors  of  those  which  fell 
to  his  share,  bearing  the  name  of  Proprxtors,  got  the  preference  of 
the  Proconsuls  in  respect  of  power  and  authority;  being  invested 
with  the  military  command,  and  continuing  in  their  oflice  as  long 
as  the  emperor  pleased. 

The  chief  assistants  of  the  Proconsuls  and  the  Proprxtors  were 
the  Legati  and  the  provincial  Quxsturs.  The  former  being  dil 
fcrent  in  number,  according  to  the  cpiality  of  the  governor  whom 
they  accompanii'd,  served  for  the  judging  of  inferior  causes,  and 
the  management  of  all  smaller  concerns  remitting  every  thing  ol 
moment  to  the  care  of  the  governor  or  president.  Hut  though  in- 
stituted at  fir>t  for  counsel  only,  (like  the  deputies  of  the  states  at- 
lendins  the  Dutch  armies,)  yet  thev  were  afterwards  admitted  to 
command,  and  therefore  will  be  described  as  general  otticers,  when 
we  come  to  >peak  of  military  alVairs.^ 

15e>id.'S  llie  I^egati,  there  went  with  every  Proconsul  or  Proprx- 
lor  one  Quxstor  or  more,  whose  whole  business  was  concerned  in 
managing  the  public  accounts,  takitig  care  of  the  supplies  of  money, 
corn,  and  other  necessaries  and  conveniences  for  the  maintenance 
of  the  Koinaii  army. 

We  seblom  meet  w  ith  Proquxstors,  in  authors  they  being  only 
such  as  performed  the  office  of  Quxstors  in  the  provinces,  witlmut 
the  depulation  of  the  senate,  whicii  was  requisite  to  the  Cinistitu- 
tion  of  the  proper  Quxstors.  This  happened  either  when  a  l^uxs- 
tor  died  in  his  office,  or  went  to  Rome  without  being  succeeded  by 
another  Quxstor;  for  in  both  these  cases,  the  governor  of  the  pro. 
vince  appointed  anotlier  in  his  room,  to  discharge  the  same  duties 
under  the  name  of  Pio(prxstor. 

Of  the  like  nature  with  the  Quxstor,  were  the  Prociiratores  de- 
.vflrt.v,  often  mentioned  by  Tacitus  and  ISuetonius;  officers  sent  by  the 
emperors  into  every  province,  to  receive  and  regulate  the  public  re- 
\fnue,  and  to  dispose  of  it  at  the  emperor's  command. 

*   Lib.  iv.  chap.  8. 


OF  THE    ROMANS. 


141 


Such  a  magistrate  was  pontius  Pilate  in  Judea ;  and  though  the 
judu;ing  of  capital  causes  did  not  properly  belong  to  his  office,  yet 
because  the  Jews  were  always  looked  upon  as  a  rebellious  nation, 
and  apt  to  revolt  upon  the  least  occasion,  and  because  the  president 
of  Syria  was  forced  to  attend  on  other  jiarts  of  his  province ;  there- 
fore, for  the  better  keeping  the  Jews  in  order,  the  Procurator  of  Ju- 
dea was  invested  with  all  the  auth  rity  proper  to  the  Proconsul, 
even  with  the  power  of  life  and  death,  as  the  learned  Bishop  Pear- 
son observes.** 


CHAPTER  XVl. 


OF    THE    COMITIA. 

THE  Coinitlciy  according  to  Sigonius's  definition,  were  *  general 
assemblies  of  the  people,  lawfully  called  by  some  magistrates,  for 
the  enjoyment  or  prohibition  of  any  thing  by  their  votes.** 

The  proper  Co?nitia  were  of  three  sorts  ;  Ciiriata^  Centuriata,  and 
Tributa  ;  with  reference  to  the  three  grand  divisions  of  the  city  and 
people  into  Curix,  Centuries,  and  Tribes :  For  by  Coniitia  Calata, 
which  we  sometimes  meet  with  in  authors,  in  elder  times  were 
meant  all  the  Comiiia  in  general ;  tlie  word  Calata,  from  itaxta,  or 
cah,  being  their  common  epithet;  though  it  was  at  last  restrained 
to  two  sorts  of  assemblies,  those  for  the  creation  of  priests,  and  those 
lor  the  inspection  and  regulation  of  last  wills  and  testaments. '^ 

The  Coniitia  Curiata  owe  their  original  to  the  division  wliich  Ro- 
mulus made  of  the  people  in  thirty  Curix  :  ten  being  contained  un- 
der every  tribe.  They  answered,  in  most  respects,  to  the  parislies 
in  our  cities,  being  not  only  separated  by  proper  bounds  and  limits, 
but  distinguished  too  by  their  different  places  set  apart  for  the  cele- 
bration of  divine  service,  which  was  performed  by  particular  priests 
(one  to  every  Curia)  with  the  name  of  Curiones. 

Dionysius  Halicarnasseus  expressly  affirms,  that  each  Curia  was 
again  subdivided  into  Decurix,  and  these  lesser  bodies  governed  by 
Decuriones.  And,  upon  the  strength  of  this  authority,  most  compi- 
lers of  the  Roman  customs  give  the  same  account  without  any  scru- 
ple.   But  it  is  the  opinion  of  the  learned  Grxvius,s  that  since  Dio- 

^  Bishop  Pearson  on  the  Creed,  Art.  4. 

-  Sigon.  de  Antiq.  Jur.  Civ.  Uomanoram,  lib.  1.  chap   17. 

*  A.  Gel?.  Jib.  ^5.  chap.  27,  s  JPrrjf.  ad  1  vol  Thcs.  Antiq.  Rojn 


142 


or  THE  CIVIL  GOVERNMEN'l 


iijsius  is  not  seconded  in  this  part  of  his  relation  by  any  ancient 
writer,  we  ought  to  think  it  was  a  mistake  in  that  great  man  ;  and 
that  by  forgetfulness,  he  attributed  such  a  division  to  the  Curiae,  a-> 
belonged  properly  to  the  Tunnae  in  the  army. 

Before  the  institution  of  tlie  Comitia  Cmturiuta,  all  the  giand 
I  oncerns  of  the  state  were  transacted  in  the  assembly  of  the  Curiae  ; 
as,  the  election  of  kings  and  other  chief  officers,  the  making  and 
abrogating  of  laws,  and  the  judging  of  capital  causes.  After  the 
expulsion  of  the  kings,  when  the  commons  had  obtained  the  privi- 
lege to  have  Tribunes  and  yEdiles,  they  elected  them  for  some  time 
at  these  assemblies  :  but,  that  ceremony  being  at  length  transferred 
to  the  Comitia  Tribvta,  the  Curiae  were  never  convened  to  give 
their  votes,  except  now  and  then  upon  account  of  making  some  par- 
ticular law  relating  to  ad(>ptions,  wills  and  testaments,  or  the  crea- 
tion of  officers  for  an  expedition  ;  for  the  electing  of  some  of  the 
priests,  as  the  Flamines,  and  the  Curio  Maximus,  or  superintend 
ant  cd' the  Curiones,  who  themselves  were  chosen  by  every  particu- 
lar Curia. 

The  power  of  calling  these  assendjlies  belonged  at  first  only  to  the 
kings;  but  upon  the  establishment  of  the  democracy,  the  same  pri- 
vilege was  allowed  to  most  of  the  chief  magistrates,  and  sometimes 
to  the  Pontijices, 

The  persons  w  ho  had  the  liberty  of  voting  here,  were  such  Roman 
citizens  as  belonged  to  the  Curiae  ;  or  such  as  actually  lived  in  the 
city,  and  conformed  to  the  customs  and  rites  of  their  proper  Curia  : 
all  those  being  excluded  who  dwelt  without  the  bounds  of  the  city, 
retaining  the  ceremonies  of  their  own  country,  though  they  had  been 
honoured  with  {\w  jus  civitatis,  or  admitted  free  citizens  of  Rome.'* 
The  place  where  the  Curix  met  was  the  Comitiinn,  a  part  of  the 
Forum  described  before.' 

No  set  time  was  allotted  for  (he  holding  of  these  or  any  of  thr 
other  Camitidy  but  only  as  business  required. 

The  people  being  met  together,  and  confirmed  by  the  report  of 
good  omens  from  the  Augurs  (which  was  necessary  in  all  the  assem- 
blies) the  Ito!!:;(ffio,  or  business  to  be  proposed  to  them,  was  publicly 
read.  After  this  (if  none  of  the  magistrates  interposed)  upon  the  or- 
der of  him  that  presided  in  tin;  Comitia,  the  people  divided  into  their 
proper  Curiae,  and  consulted  of  the  matter;  and  then  the  Curiae  be- 
ing called  out,  as  it  happened  by  lot,  gave  their  votes,  man  by  man. 
in  ancient  times  viva  voce,  and  afterwards  by  tablets  [tabella  :)  the 


'•  Sigon.  de  Antiti.  Jur.  Provinc.  Ub.  9.  chnp.  1.    ■  Sec  Part  H.  Book  \  chap  5 


^F    THE    ROMANS. 


Ii3 


most  votes  in  every  Curia  going  for  the  voice  of  the  whole  Curia, 
and  the  most  Curiae  for  ilie  general  consent  of  the  peuple. 

In  the  time  of  Cicero,  the  Comitia  Curiata  were  so  much  out  of 
fashion,  that  they  were  formed  only  by  thirty  Lictors  representing 
the  thirty  Curiae  :  whence,  in  his  second  oration  against  Rullus,  he 
calls  them  Comitia  adumbrata. 

The  Comitia  Centuriata  were  instituted  by  Servius  Tullius ;  w  ho, 
obliging  every  one  to  give  a  true  account  of  what  they  were  worth, 
according  to  those  accounts  divided  the  people  into  six  ranks  or 
dasaeSy  which  he  subdivided  into  193  centuries.  The  first  dassis, 
containing  the  Equitea  and  richest  citizens,  consisted  of  ninety" 
eight  centuries.  The  second,  taking  in  the  tradesmen  and  mecha- 
nics, made  up  tw  o  and  twenty  centuries.  The  third,  the  same  num- 
ber. The  fourth,  twenty.  The  fifth,  thirty.  And  the  last,  filled 
up  with  the  poorer  sort,  had  but  one  century.*" 

And  this,  though  it  had  the  same  name  w  ith  the  rest,  yet  w^as  sel- 
dom regarded,  or  allowed  by  any  power  in  public  matters.  Hence 
it  is  a  common  thing  with  the  Roman  authors,  when  th/^y  speak  of 
ihe  Classes,  to  reckon  no  more  than  five,  the  sixth  not  being  worth 
their  notice.  This  last  dassis  was  divided  into  two  parts,  or  or- 
ders, the  proletarii,  and  the  capita  censi.  The  former,  as  their  name 
implies,  were  designed  purely  to  stock  the  commonwealth! with  men, 
since  they  could  supply  it  with  so  little  money  ;  and  the  latter,  who 
paid  the  lowest  tax  of  all,  were  rather  counted  and  marshalled  by 
iheir  heads  than  their  estates.' 

Persons  of  the  first  rank,  by  reason  of  their  pre-eminence,  had 
tlie  name  oi  dassici ;  whence  came  the  phrase  of  dassici  auctores, 
for  the  most  approved  writers.  All  others,  of  what  dassis  soever, 
w^ere  said  to  be  infra  dassem,'" 

The  assembly  of  the  people  by  centuries  was  held  for  the  electing 
of  Consuls,  Censors,  and  Praetors;  as  also  for  the  judging  of  persons 
accused  of  what  they  called  crimen  perdifdlionis ,  or  actions  by  which 
the  party  had  showed  himself  an  enemy  to  the  state ;  and  for  the 
confirmation  of  all  such  laws  as  were  proposed  by  the  chief  magis- 
trates, and  which  had  the  privilege  of  calling  these  assemblies. 

The  place  appointed  for  their  meeting  was  the  Campus  Martius; 
i)ecause  in  the  primitive  times  of  the  commonwealth,  when  they  were 
under  continual  apprehensions  of  enemies,  the  people,  to  prevent  any 
>udden  assault,  went  armed,  in  martial  order,  to  hoid  these  assem- 
blies ;  and  w  ere  for  that  reason  forbid  by  the  laws  to  meet  in  the 


Rosin,  .lb.  7.  chap.  7. 
See  Di'jM\s.  lib.  4. 


i  A.  Gcll.  lib.  7.  .  i. .().  13. 
^  Idem,  lib.  16.  chap.  10. 


^.'•r 
i* 


144 


Of    THE    CIVIL    GOVERNMFNl 


OF  THE   ROMANS. 


145 


city,  bocau^t'  an  army  was  upijn  no  account  to  be  marslialled  w  itiun 
the  walls;  yet,  in  latter  a«;es,  it  was  tliouijht  suttitient  to  place  a 
body  ot  soldiers  as  a  i^uard  in  the  .laniculuni,  where  an  imperial 
standard  was  erected,  the  taking  down  of  which  denoted  the  con- 
cbisiun  of  the  Comitia. 

Thou«''h  the  tiine  ot"  these  Comitia  for  other  matters  was  undeter- 
mined,  yet  the  m;ii:;istrates,  after  the  year  of  the  city  ()01,  when  they 
he^^an  to  enter  on  their  place  on  the  Kalends  of  January,  were  con- 
stantly designed  about  the  end  of  July,  and  the  begmnin^ir  of  Au;^ust. 

All  the  time  between  tiieir  election  and  confirmation,  they  con- 
tinued as  private  persons,  that  incpiisition  might  be  made  into  the 
clecti(»n,  and  the  other  candidates  niight  have  time  to  enter  objec- 
tions, if  they  met  with  any  suspicion  of  foul  dealing.  Vet  at  the  elec- 
tion of  the  Censors,  this  custom  did  not  hold  ;  but  as  soon  as  they  were 
pronounced  elected,  they  were  immediately  invested  with  the  ho- 
nour. 

15y  the  iAstitution  of  these  Comitia,  Servius  Tullius  secretly  con- 
veyed the  V  hole  power  fn)m  the  commons  ;  for  the  centuries  of  the 
first  and  richest  class  being  called  out  first,  who  were  three  more  in 
number  than  all  the  rest  put  together,  if  they  all  agreed,  as  generally 
they  did,  the  business  was  alreaily  decided,  and  the  other  classes 
were  needless  and  insignilicant.  However,  the  three  last  scarce 
ever  catne  to  vote.' 

The  commons,  in  the  time  of  the  free  state,  to  rectify  this  disad- 
vantai^e,  obtained,  that  before  they  procruMlrd  to  voting  any  matter 
at  these  Comitia,  that  century  should  give  their  sullVages  lirst,  upon 
whom  it  fell  by  lot,  with  the  name  oi  v€}i1uri<t  prccrogativa;  the  rest 
beinu;  to  follow  according  to  the  order  of  their  classes.  After  the 
coustituticm  of  the  live  and  thirty  tribes,  into  which  the  classes  and 
their  centuries  were  divided,  in  the  lirst  place,  the  tribes  cast  l(»ts, 
which  should  be  the  prerogative  tribe  :  and  then  the  centuries  of 
the  tribe,  for  the  honour  of  being  the  prerogative  century.  All  the 
other  tribes  and  centuries  had  the  appellation  oi  jifre  vocatco,  be- 
cause they  were  called  out  according  to  their  proper  places. 

The  prerogative  century  being  chosen  by  lot,  the  chief  magistrate 
sitting  in  a  tent  (tabernaculum),  in  the  middle  of  the  Campus  Mar- 
tius,  ordered  that  century  to  ccnne  out  and  give  their  voices  ;  upon 
which  they  presently  separated  from  the  rest  of  the  multitude,  and 
came  into  an  inclosed  apartment,  which  they  termed  septa,  or  ovilia, 
passing  over  the  pontes,  or  narrow  boards,  laid  there  for  the  occasion  ; 
on  which  account,  de  ponte  dejici  is  to  be  denied  the  privilege  of  vot- 
ing; and  persons  thus  dealt  with,  are  called  deponiani. 


At  the  hither  end  of  the  pontes,  stood  tlie  diribitores  (a  sort  of 
under  nfVicers,  called  so  fnmi  dividing  or  marshellinji:  the  people,) 
and  delivered  to  every  man,  in  the  election  oj"  magistrates  as  many 
tablets  [tahelhe)  as  there  appeared  candidates,  one  of  whose  names 
was  written  upon  every  tablet. 

A  lit  number  of  great  chests  were  set  ready  in  tlie  Septa,  and 
eveiy  body  threw  in  which  tablet  he  pleased. 

Hy  the  chests  were  placed  some  of  the  public  servants,  who,  tak- 
ing out  the  tablets  (d'  every  century,  for  every  tablet  made  a  prick 
or  a  point  in  another  tablet,  which  they  kept  by  them.  Thus  the 
business  being  decided  by  most  points,  gave  occasion  to  the  phrase 
of  Omne  tulil  piinetiim,^'  and  the  like. 

The  sa  ne  method  was  observed  in  the  judiciary  processes  at  these 
Comitia,  and  in  the  confirmation  of  laws  ;  except  that  in  both  these 
cases  only  two  tablets  were  offered  to  every  person,  on  one  of  which 
\vas  written  U.  R.  and  on  the  other  A.  in  capital  letters  ;  the  two 
first  standing  for  Uti  Bogus,  or  Be  it  as  you  desire,  relating  to  the 
magisti  ate  who  proposed  the  question  ;  and  the  last  for  »^nfifjuo,  or 
I  forbid  it. 

It  is  remarkable,  that  though  in  the  election  of  magistrates,  and 
in  the  ratification  of  laws,  the  votes  of  that  century  whose  tablets 
were  efjually  divided  signified  nothing,  yet  in  trials  of  life  and 
death,  if  the  tablets  pro  and  con  were  the  same  in  number,  the  per- 
son was  actually  acquitted.' 

The  division  of  the  people  into  Tribes,  was  an  invention  of  Romu- 
lus, after  he  had  admitted  the  Sabines  into  Rome;  and  though  he 
constituted  at  that  time  only  three,  yet  as  the  state  increased  in 
power,  and  the  city  in  number  of  inhabitants,  they  rose  by  degrees 
to  five  and  thirty.  For  a  long  time  after  this  institution  a  tribe  si"-- 
nified  no  more  than  such  a  space  of  ground  with  its  inhabitants. 
But  at  last  the  matter  was  cjuite  altered,  and  a  tribe  was  no  longer 
pars  Krbis  but  civitatis  ;  not  a  quarter  of  the  city  but  a  company  oi 
citizens,  living  where  they  pleased.  This  change  was  chiefly  occa- 
sioned by  the  original  difference  between  the  tribes  in  point  of  ho- 
nour. For  Romulus  having  committed  all  sordid  and  mechanic  art? 
to  the  care  of  strangers,  slaves,  and  libertines,  and  reserved  the 
more  honest  labour  of  agriculture  to  the  freemen  and  citizens,  who, 
by  this  active  course  of  life,  might  be  prepared  for  martial  service ; 
the  tribus  ruslicao  were  for  this  reason  esteemed  more  honourable 
than  the  urban x  ;  and  now  all  persons  being  desirous  of  getting  in- 
to the  more  creditable  division,  and  there  being  several  ways  of  ac- 


"  Liv.  lib.  40. 


•  Dionys.  lib.  4. 


p  Hor.  de  A.^-le  Poe\ 


*3  Diony?.  lib.  7. 


146 


OF  THE  CIVIL  GOVERNMENT 


OF  THE  ROMANS. 


147 


complished  their  wishes,  as  by  adoption,  by  the  power  of  the  ceiiaorji 
and  the  like  ;  that  rustic  tribe  which  had  most  worthy  names  in  its 
roll  had  the  |)reference  to  all  others,  though  of  the  same  general  de- 
nomination. Hence  all  of  the  same  ^reat  family,  bringing  themselve*^ 
by  degrees  into  the  same  tribe,  gave  the  name  of  their  family  to  the 
tribe  they  honoured  ;  whereas  at  first  the  generality  of  the  tribes  did 
not  borrow  their  names  from  persons  but  from  places.' 

The  first  assembly  of  the  tribes  we  meet  with,  is  about  the  year 
of  Rome  263,  convened  by  Sp.  Sicinius,  Tribune  of  the  commons, 
upon  account  of  the  trial  of  Coriolanus.  Soon  after,  the  Tribunes  of 
the  commons  were  ordered  to  be  elected  here  ;  and  at  last,  all  the 
inferior  magistrates  and  the  collegiate  priests.  The  same  Comitiu 
served  for  the  enacting  of  laws  relating  to  war  and  peace,  and  all 
others  proposed  by  the  Tribunes  and  plebeian  officers,  though  they 
liad  not  properly  the  name  of  lep^es,  but  plebisrita.  They  wei  e  ge- 
nerally convened  by  the  Tribunes  of  the  commons;  but  the  same 
privilege  was  allowed  to  all  the  chief  magistrates. 

They  were  confined  to  no  place,  and  therefore  sometimes  we  find 
them  held  in  the  Comitimn,  sometimes  in  the  Campus  MartiuSy  and 
now  and  then  in  the  Capitol. 

The  proceedings  were,  in  most  respects,  answerable  to  those  al- 
ready described  in  the  account  of  the  other  Comitia,  and  therefore 
need  not  be  insisted  on  ;  only  we  may  farther  observe  of  the  Comitia 
in  general,  that  when  any  candidate  was  found  to  have  most  tablets 
for  a  magistracy,  he  was  declared  to  be  designed  or  elected  by  the 
president  of  the  assembly  ;  and  this  they  termed  renwiciari  Consul, 
Pi'wtor,  or  the  like  ;  and  that  the  last  sort  of  the  Comitia  only  coulil 
be  held  without  the  consent  and  approbation  of  the  Senate,  which 
was  necessary  to  the  convening  of  the  other  two.^ 


CHAPTER  XVll. 

OF    THE    ROMAN    JUDGMENTS;    AND    FIRST,    OF    PRIVATE 

JUDGMENTS. 

A  JUDGMENT,  according  to  Aristotle's  definition,  is  no  more 
than  Kg/o-/5  tou  tT/jta/ow  ««<  tf/ixoi/,  the  'lecision  of  right  or  wrong. 
The  whole  subject  of  the  Roman  judgments  is  admirably  explained 


jjy  Sigonius  in  his  three  books  de  Judiciis,  from  whom  the  following 
account  is  for  the  most  part  extracted. 

Judgments,  or  determinations  of  a  proper  judge,  were  made  either 
by  Ji  competent  number  of  select  judges,  or  by  the  whole  people  in 
a  general  a>sembly. 

Judgments  made  by  one  or  more  select  judges,  may  be  divided 
into  public  and  private  ;  the  first  relating  to  controversies,  the  se- 
cond to  crimes. 

The  former  will  be  sufficiently  described,  if  we  consider  the  mat- 
ter or  subjects  of  these  judgments,  the  persons  concerned  in  them, 
and  the  manner  of  proceeding. 

The  matter  of  private  judgments  taken  in  all  sorts  of  causes  that 
can  happen  betv»een  man  and  man  ;  which  being  so  vastly  extended, 
and  belonging  more  immediately  to  tlie  civil  law,  need  not  here  be 
insisted  on. 

The  persons  concerned  were  tlie  parties,  the  assistants,  and  the 
judges. 

The  parties  were  the  actor  and  reus,  the  plaintiff  and  defendant. 
The  assistants  were  the  pro cttrato res,  and  the  tf(/t'oc«/i,  of  whom, 
though  they  are  often  confounded,  yet  the  first  were  properly  such 
lawyers  as  assisted  the  plaintift'in  proving,  or  the  defendant  in  clear- 
ing himself  irom  the  matter  of  fact;  the  other,  who  were  likewise 
called  patroni,  were  to  defend  their  client's  cause  in  matters  of  law.* 
Both  these  were  selected  out  of  the  ablest  lawyers,  and  had  their 
names  entered  into  the  matriculation  book  of  the  forum.  This  was 
one  condition  requisite  to  give  them  the  liberty  of  pleading;  the  other 
was  the  being  retained  by  one  party,  or  the  receiving  a  fee,  which 
they  termed  mandatum,'' 

The  judges,  besides  the  Praetor  or  supreme  magistrate,  who  pre- 
sided in  the  court,  and  allowed  and  confirmed  them,  were  of  three 
sorts;  Arbitriy  Recuperator es,  and  Centumviri  litibus  judica)idis. 

JI rb it ri,  whom  they  called  simply  ;W/cc5,  were  appointed  to  deter 
mine  in  some  private  causes  of  no  great  consequence,  and  of  very 
easy  decision. 

Jiccuperatores  were  assigned  to  decide  the  controversies  about  re- 
ceiving  or  recovering  things  which  had  been  lost  or  taken  away. 

But  the  usual  judges  in  private  causes,  were  the  Centumviri ; 
three  of  which  were  taken  out  of  every  tribe,  so  that  their  number 
was  five  more  than  their  name  imported  ;  and  at  length  increased  to 
a  hundred  and  eighty.  It  is  probable  that  the  Jirbitri  and  Recupe- 
ratores  were  assigned  out  ol  this  body  by  the  Praetor. 

The  manner  of  carrynig  on  the  private  suits  was  of  this  nature  : 


'  Mr.  Walker  on  Coins,  p.  126. 


Dionys,  lib.  9. 


Zoucli.  Element,  dunsprud.  p.  5.  sect. 


rbirl. 


■.a*iiS* 


14S 


Ut    THE    CIVIL    UOVEKNMLNl 


OF    THE    ROMANS. 


14^ 


The  (litt'ereiice  failing  to  be  made  up  between  iVieiids,  the  injured 
person  proceeded  in  juis  rtum  vucart,  to  bunimon  or  cite  the  otieiid- 
in"^  pinty  to  the  court;  who  was  obliged  immediately  to  go  along 
with  him,  or  else  to  give  bond  for  his  appearance  ;  according  to  the 
common  maxim,  In  jus  vocatus,  aut  eat  uut  sutiadtf. 

lioth  parties  being  met  before  tiie  Pra:tor,  or  other  supreme  ma- 
gistrate presiding  in  the  court,  the  plaintitt* proposed  the  action  to  the 
defendant,  in  wliich  lie  designed  to  sue  him;  this  they  termed  idere 
actionem^  being  perlormeil  commonly  by  writing  it  in  a  tablet,  and 
ottering  it  to  tlie  defendant,  that  he  might  see  whether* he  had  best 
compound  or  stand  the  suit. 

In  the  next  place  came  the  pontidatin  aclionis,  or  the  plaint IlFs 
desiring  leave  of  the  Prxtor  to  prosecute  the  defendant  in  such  an 
action;  this  being  granted,  the  plaintitt*  vadabiUur  rcum,  obliged  liim 
to  give  sureties  for  his  appearance  on  such  a  day  in  the  court  ;  and 
this  was  all  that  was  done  in  public,  before  the  day  prelixed  lor  the 
trial. 

In  the  mean  time,  the  ditterence  used  very  often  to  be  made  up, 
either  tran.sartionc,o\'  pacta y  by  letting  the  cause  fall  as  dubious  and 
uncertain  ;  or  by  composition  for  so  much  damage,  to  be  ascertained 
by  an  equal  number  of  friends. 

On  the  day  appointed  for  hearing,  the  Prajtor  ordered  the  several 
bills  to  be  read,  and  the  parties  to  be  summoned  by  an  accensits  or 
beadle.  Upon  the  default  of  cither  ])arty,  the  defaulter  lost  his 
cause.  The  appearing  of  both  they  termed  sv  stdissc  ;  and  the  plain- 
titt'proceeded  lifnn  ttive  actionem  intcnderc,  to  prefer  the  suit;  which 
was  performed  in  a  set  form  of  words,  varying  according  to  the  dif- 
ference of  the  actions.  After  this  the  plaintiif  desired  judgment  of 
the  Prxtor ;  that  is,  to  be  allowed  a  judex  or  arbiter^  or  else  the  re- 
vvpcratorcs  or  ccntuniviri,  for  the  hearing  and  deciding  the  business ; 
but  none  of  these  could  be  desired,  unless  botii  parties  agreed.  The 
Pr^Ltor,  when  he  assigned  them  their  judges,  at  the  same  time  de- 
fined the  number  of  witnesses,  to  hinder  the  protracting  of  the  suit; 
and  then  the  parties  proceeded  to  give  caution,  that  the  judgment, 
whatever  it  was,  should  stand  and  be  performed  on  both  sides.  The 
judges  always  took  a  solemn  oath  to  be  impartial ;  and  the  parties 
swore  they  did  not  go  to  law  with  a  design  to  abuse  one  another  ; 
this  they  caWed  jura nientum  cahimniic.  Then  began  the  disceptatio 
cauniVy  or  disputing  the  case,  managed  by  the  lawyers  on  both  sides  : 
with  the  assistance  of  witnesses,  writings,  and  the  like ;  the  use  of 
which  is  so  admirablv  tau2:ht  in  their  books  of  oratorv. 

In  giving  sentence,  the  major  part  of  the  judges  was  required  to 
overthrow  the  defendant.     If  the  number  was  equally  divided,  the 


defendant  was  actually  cleared ;  and  if  half  condemned  him  in 
one  sum  to  be  paid,  and  half  in  another,  the  least  sum  always  stood 
good.^ 

The  consequence  of  the  sentence  was  either  In  integrum  restitu^ 
tio,  AddictiOy  Judicium  calumni<£,  or  Judicium  falsi. 

The  first  was,  when  upon  petition  of  the  party  who  was  over- 
thrown, the  Praetor  gave  him  leave  to  have  the  suit  come  on  again, 
allowed  him  another  full  hearing. 

jlddictio,  was,  when  the  party  who  had  been  cast  in  such  a  sum, 
unless  he  gave  surety  to  pay  it  in  a  little  time,  was  brought  by  the 
plaintilT  before  the  Pr.itor,  who  delivered  him  into  his  disposal,  to 
be  committed  to  prison,  or  otherwise  secured,  till  satisfaction  was 
made. 

Judicium  calumnia  was  an  action  brought  against  the  plaintiff 
for  false  accusation. 

Judicium  falsi y  was  an  action  which  lay  against  the  judges  for  cor- 
ruption and  unjust  proceedings. 


CHAPTER  XVIll. 


OF    PUBLIC   JUDGMENTS. 


FOR  the  knowledge  of  public  judgments,  we  may  take  notice  of 
the  crimes,  of  the  punishments,  of  the  Quaesitors  and  judges,  of  the 
method  of  proceeding,  and  of  the  consequences  of  the  trial. 

The  crimes,  or  the  matter  of  the  public  judgments,  were  such  ac- 
tions as  tended,  either  mediately  or  immediately,  to  the  prejudice  of 
the  state,  and  were  foibid  by  the  laws  :  as  if  any  person  had  deroga- 
ted from  the  honour  and  majesty  of  the  commonwealth  ;  had  embez- 
zled or  put  to  ill  uses  the  public  money,  or  any  treasure  consecrat- 
ed to  religion  ;  or  had  corrupted  the  people's  votes  in  an  election ; 
or  had  extorted  contributions  from  the  allies  ;  or  received  money  ill 
any  judgment ;  or  had  used  any  violent  compulsion  to  a  member  of 
the  commonwealth  :  these  they  termed  Crimina  majestatisy  pecula- 
tnSy  amJjituSy  repetundarum,  and  vis  publica.  Or  if  any  person  had 
killed  another  with  a  weapon,  or  effected  the  same  with  pois:  i^ ;  or 
bid  violent  hands  on  his  parents  ;  or  had  forged  a  will;  or  counter- 

"  Zoucli.  Element,  p.  5.  sect  10. 
'2\ 


150 


f)F   THi:   CIVIL   GOVERNMENT 


feite<l  the  public  coin  ;  or  had  conupleti  another  man's  wife  ;  or  liad 
boiui;ht,  bound,  or  concealed  a  servant,  without  the  knowledge  of  his 
master  ;  whence  these  crimes  took  the  names  of  inter  sicarios,  vene- 
fuii,  jHfracidiL  falsi,  a(h(lferii,  pluy;iu 

Besides  these,  any  private  cause,  by  virtue  of  a  new  law,  might 
be  made  of  public  cognizance. 

As  to  the  punishments,  they  may  be  alloweil  a  chapter  by  them- 
selves hereafter. 

The  inipisition  of  criminal  matters  belonged  at  first  to  the  kins;s, 
and,  after  the  abrojration  of  the  government,  for  some  time  to  the 
consuls;  but  being  taki^n  from  them  by  the  Valerian  law,  it  was  con- 
ferred, as  occasion  happened,  upon  officers  deputed  by  the  people, 
with  the  title  of  Quxsitorcs  Parrividii.  hut,  about  the  year  of  the 
city  604,  this  power  was  made  perpetual  and  appropriated  to  the 
Pra:tors,  bv  virtue  of  an  order  of  the  people  at  their  annual  election  : 
the  in(iuisition  of  such  and  such  crimes  being  committed  to  such  and 
such  Prxtors.  Yet,  upon  extraordinaiy  occasions,  the  people  could 
appoint  other  Qmrsi/ores,  if  they  thought  convenient. 

Next  to  the  Qmesitorcs,  was  the  Judex  Qiceslionia ;  called  also  by 
Asconius,  Pi'inaps  Judicirm,  who,  though  he  is  sometimes  confound- 
ed with  the  Prxtor,  yet  was  proj)erly  a  jierson  of  note,  deputed  by 
the  Prxtor,  to  manage  the  trial,  of  which  the  former  magistrate  per- 
formed oidv  the  main  business. 

ft/ 

After  him  were  the  Judicea  selecti,  who  were  summoned  by  the 
Prxtor  to  give  the  verdict  in  criminal  matters,  in  the  samemannei 
as  our  juries.  What  alterations  were  made  in  difterent  times  as  to 
the  orders  of  the  people  whence  i\iQ  jifdiees  were  to  be  taken,  will 
be  observed  wl\en  we  speak  of  the  particular  laws  on  this  head.^* 
No  person  could  regularly  be  admitted  into  the  number,  unless  five 
and  twenty  years  of  age.'^ 

As  to  the  method  of  the  proceedings,  the  first  action,  which  they 
termed  in  jus  vocatio,  was  much  the  same  in  public  as  in  private 
causes  ;  but  then,  as  the  postulatio  of  the  plaintiff  consited  in  desir- 
in"-  leave  of  the  Prxtor  to  enter  a  suit  against  the  defendant,  so  here 
the  accusar  desired  permission  to  enter  the  name  of  the  offender, 
with  the  crime  which  he  objected  to  him  :  This  they  called  Nominis 
delatio  ;  being  performed  first  viva  voce,  in  a  form  of  words,  accord- 
in«-  to  the  nature  of  the  crime,  and  then  offered  to  the  Praetor,  being 
written  in  a  tablet ;  if  approved  by  the  Prxtor,  the  accused  party's 
name  was  entered  in  the  roll  of  criminals  ;  both  persons  having  ta- 
ken the  oatu  of  calumny  already  spoken  of. 


^  Chap.  36. 


Grrcv.  Pra;fat.  ad  vol.  1.  Anliq.  Konn. 


OF    THE    ROMANS. 


151 


At  the  entrance  of  the  name,  the  Prxtor  appointed  a  set  day  for 
the  trial  ;  and  from  that  time  the  accused  person  changed  his  habit, 
going  in  black  till  the  trial  was  over,  and  using  in  his  dress  and 
carriage  all  tokens  of  sorrow  and  concern. 

Upon  the  appointed  day,  the  court  being  met,  and  both  parties 
appearing,  the  first  thing  that  was  done,  was  the  sortitio  jifdicimiy 
or  impannelling  the  jury ;  performed  commonly  by  the  Judex  Quxs- 
tionis,  who  took  by  lot  such  a  number  out  of  the  body  of  t\\eji(dices 
selecti,  as  the  particular  law  on  which  the  accusation  was  founded 
had  determined  ;  liberty  being  given  to  both  parties  to  reject,  (or,  as 
we  call  it,  to  challenge)  any  that  they  pleased,  the  Praetor,  or  Judex 
Quixbtionis,  substituting  others  in  their  places. 

The  jury  being  thus  chosen,  was  cited  by  the  public  servants  of 
the  court ;  and  when  the  proper  number  appeared,  they  were  sworn, 
and  then  took  their  places  in  the  aubsellia,  and  heard  the  trial. 

In  this  we  may  reckon  four  parts,  /Iccumtio,  Dcfemlo,  Laudatio, 

and  Latio  aenientits. 

Jccusatio  is  defined,  Perpelua  ratio  ad  crinnna  inferenda  atquc 
augenda  artificiose  compositu  ;  a  continued  oration,  artificially  com- 
posed for  the  making  out  and  heightening  the  crimes  alleged  ;  for  it 
did  not  only  consist  in  giving  a  plain  narration  of  the  matter  ot  fact, 
and  confirming  it  by  witnesses  and  other  evidences  ;  but  in  bringing 
of  other  arguments  too,  drawn  from  the  nature  of  the  thing,  from  the 
character  ol"  the  accused  person,  and  his  former  course  of  life,  from 
the  circumstances  of  the  fact,  and  several  other  topics,  which  the 
orators  teacli  us  to  enlarge  upon  ;  nor  was  the  accuser  limited  in  re- 
spect of  time,  being  allowed  commonly  as  many  days  as  he  pleased, 
to  make  good  his  charge. 

Dejemio  belonged  to  the  lawyers  or  advocates  retained  by  the  ac- 
cused party,  who  in  like  manner  were  allowed  to  speak  as  many  days 
as  they  pleased,  towards  the  clearing  of  their  client.  The  three 
common  methods  they  took,  were  fadi  negcUio,  negalio  nominis 
facti,  or  probatio  jure  factum  ;  either  plainly  to  deny  the  matter  of 
fact,  and  endeavour  to  evince  the  contrary  ;  or  else  to  acknowledge 
the  tact,  and  yet  to  deny  that  it  fell  under  the  nature  of  the  crime 
objected  ;  or,  lastly,  to  prove  the  fact  lawful. 

The  first  way  of  defence  was  generally  used  when  the  person 
stood  indicted  of  what  they  called  crimen  repetundarum,  and  crimen 
ambitus;  the  next  in  the  crimen  majestatis ;  and  the  last  m  cases 

of  murder.  ,  •    j      r^r  ^u 

Cicero  has  given  us  an  excellent  example  in  every  kind.  Ot  the 
first ,  in  his  orations  for  Fonteius,  Flaccus.  Muraena,  and  Plancius ;  of 


152 


OF    THE    CIVIL    GOVERNMENT 


OF  THE    ROMANS. 


T*;!^ 


the  second,  in  that  lor  Cornelius  ;  and  of  the  thiid,  in  his  admira- 
ble defence  of  Milo. 

Lau (latio  wsi^  a  custom  like  that  in  our  trials,  of  bringing  in  per- 
sons of  credit  to  give  their  testimony  of  the  accused  person's  good 
behaviour,  and  integrity  of  life.  The  least  number  of  these  iaaiiu- 
tore>i  used  to  be  ten. 

In  the  JAttio  sfnfenfics,  ov  pronouncing  sentence,  they  proceeded 
thus  ;  after  the  orators  on  both  sides  had  said  all  they  designed,  the 
crier  gave  notice  of  it  accordingly  ;  an<l  then  the  Pritor  sent  out  the 
jury  to  consult  (niittehat  jifdiccs  in  consU'uim),  delivering  to  every 
one  three  tablets  covered  with  wax,  one  of  absolution,  another  of 
condemnation,  the  third  of  amplification  or  adjournment  of  tiie  trial; 
the  first  being  marked  with  A;  the  second  with  C  ;  the  other  with 
N.  L.  or  non  liquet. 

In  the  place  where  the  jury  withdrew,  was  set  a  proper  number 
of  urns,  or  boxes,  into  which  they  threw  what  tablet  they  please<l; 
the  accused  person  prostrating  himself  all  this  while  at  their  feet,  to 
move  their  compassion. 

Tiie  tablets  being  drawn,  and  the  greatest  number  known,  the 
Praetor  pronounced  sentence  accordingly.  The  form  of  condemna- 
tion was  usually,  Videtur  ftcisse,  o\  Non  jure  videtur  fecisse:  Of 
absolution,  Son  videtvr  fecisfiC :  Of  amplification,  ^m/v//^/*  cY>^/ios- 
cendum;  or  rather  the  bare  word  .^MPLIUS:  This  Asconius 
teaclu's  us ;  JMoh  veteriwi  hie  futrat,  ut  si  absolveiulus  quis  csaet, 
stutiin  abiiolceretur ;  ai  dmnnanduSy  statim  damnaretur ;  si  causa 
non  esset  idonea  ad  damnationcm,  absolvi  tamen  non  posset,  AM- 
PLIUS pnmuneiaretur.  Sometimes  he  mentioned  the  punishment, 
anii  sometimes  bft  it  out,  as  being  determined  by  the  law  on  wliich 
the  indictment  was  grounded. 

The  coiisecpierices  of  the  trial  in  criminal  matters  maybe  reduced 
to  these  four  heads,  JEstimalio  litis,  Animadversio,  Judicium  calmn- 
7U(C,  and  Judicium  pravaricatimiis, 

jEstimatio  litis,  or  the  rating  of  the  damages,  was  in  use  only  in 
cases  of  bribery,  and  abuse  of  the  public  money. 

Aninmdversio,  was  no  more  than  the  putting  the  sentence  in  exe- 
cution, wliich  was  left  to  the  care  of  the  Pr^itor. 

But  in  case  the  party  was  absolved,  there  lay  two  actions  against 
iiie  accuser;  one  of  calumny,  the  common  punishment  of  which  was 
f routes  inustio,  burning  in  the  forehead  ;  and  the  other  of  prevarica- 
tion, when  the  accuser,  instead  of  urging  the  crime  home,  seemed 
rather  to  hide  or  extenuate  the  guilt;  hence  the  Civilians  define  a 
pre>aricator,  to  be  "  one  that  betravs  his  cause  to  the  adversarv, 
and  turns  on  the  criminars  side,  whom  he  ought  to  prosecute.'* 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

JUDGMENTS    OF    THE    W^HOLE    PEOPLE. 

THE  people  were  sometimes  the  judges,  both  in  private  and  pub- 
lic causes ;  though  of  the  first  we  have  only  one  example,  in  Livy ; 
the  other  we  frequently  meet  with  in  authors. 

These  juilgments  were  made  first  at  the  Comitia  Curiata,  and  af- 
terwards at  the  Centuriata  and  Tributu  ;  the  proceedin'*-s  in  all 
which  assemblies  have  been  already  shewn  ;  what  we  may  further 
observe  is  this ;  When  any  magistrate  designed  to  impeach  a  per- 
son of  a  crime  before  the  whole  people,  he  ascended  the  rostra,  and 
calling  the  people  together  by  a  crier,  signified  to  them,  that  upon 
such  a  day,  he  intended  to  accuse  such  a  person  of  such  a  crime  : 
This  they  termed  rto  diem  dicere  ;  the  suspected  party  was  obliged 
immediately  to  give  sureties  for  his  appearance  on  the  day  prefixed, 
and  in  default  of  bail,  was  committed  to  prison. 

On  the  appointed  day,  the  magistrate  again  ascended  the  rostra, 
and  cited  the  party  by  the  crier  ;  who  unless  some  other  magistrate 
of  equal  authority  interposed,  or  a  suHicient  excuse  was  offered,  was 
obliged  to  appear,  or  might  be  punished  at  the  pleasure  of  the  magis- 
trate who  accused  him.  If  he  appeared,  the  accuser  be«-an  his 
charge,  and  carried  it  on  every  other  day,  for  six  days  together  ;  at 
the  end  of  the  indictment  mentioning  the  particular  punishment  spe- 
cified in  the  law  for  such  an  offence.  This  intimation  thev  termed 
inquisitio.  The  same  was  immediately  after  expressed  in  writin«»-, 
and  then  took  the  name  of  rogatio,  in  respect  of  the  people,  who 
were  to  be  asked  or  consulted  about  it ;  and  irrogatio,  in  respect  of 
the  criminal,  as  it  imported  the  mulct  or  punishment  assigned  him^by 
the  accuser.  This  rogatio  was  publicly  exposed  three  nundina'  or 
market-days  together,  for  the  information  of  the  people.  On  the 
third  market-day,  tlie  accuser  again  ascended  the  rostra  ;  and,  the 
people  being  called  together,  undertook  the  fourth  turn  of  his  char"-e, 
and,  having  concluded,  gave  the  other  party  leave  to  enter  upon  hiis 
defence,  either  in  his  own  person,  or  by  his  advocates. 

At  the  same  time  as  the  accuser  finished  his  fourth  char^-e  he 
gave  notice  what  day  he  would  have  the  Comitia  meet  to  receive 
the  bill ;  the  Comitia  Tributa  to  consider  of  mulcts,  and  the  Centu- 
iula  for  capital  punishments. 

But  in  the  mean  time,  there  were  several  ways  by  which  the  ac- 


!i*»%H 


154 


OF    THE    CIVIL    GOVERNMENT 


OF  THE   ROMANS. 


155 


cuseil  party  might  be  relieved ;  as  first,  if  the  tribunes  of  the  com- 
mons interposed  in  his  behalf;  or  if  he  excused  himself  by  voluntary 
exile,  sickness,  or  uj)on  account  of  providing  for  a  funeral  ;  or  if  he 
prevailed  Avith  the  accuser  to  relinquish  his  charge,  and  let  the  (  ause 
fall ;  or,  if  upon  tl»e  day  appointed  for  the  Comitia,  the  Augurs  dis- 
( overed  any  ill  omens,  and  so  forbad  the  assembly. 

If  none  of  these  happened,  the  Comitia  met,  and  proceeded  a» 
has  been  alreadv  described  ;  and  as  for  their  anhnadversiOy  or  putting 
the  sentence  in  execution,  this  was  performed  in  the  same  manner 
as  in  the  IV.vtorian  judi^ments. 

The  forms  of  iudi»nients  which  have  been  thus  described,  must  be 
jsupposed  to  have  prevailed  chietly  in  the  time  of  the  free  state :  for 
as  the  kings  before,  so  the  emperors  afterwards,  were  themselves 
iudf-es  in  what  causes  and  after  what  manner  thev  pleased,  as  Sue- 
lonius  particularly  informs  us  of  almost  all  the  twelve  Cxsars.  It 
was  this  gave  occasion  to  the  rise  of  the  mandtiioris  and  ihlatores, 
a  sort  of  wretches  to  be  met  with  in  every  part  of  history.  The  bu- 
siness of  the  former  was  to  mark  (U)wn  such  persons  as  upon  in- 
quisition they  pretended  to  have  found  guilty  of  any  misdemeanour; 
and  the  latter  were  employed  in  accusing  antl  prosecuting  them  up- 
on the  other's  order.  This  mischievious  tribe,  as  they  were  counte- 
nanced and  rewarded  by  ill  princes,  so  were  they  extremely  de- 
tested by  t!»e  good  emperors.  Titns  prosecuted  all  that  could  be 
found  upon  the  nmst  diligent  search,  with  death  or  perpetual  ban- 
ishment ;>  and  IMiny  reckons  it  amongst  the  greatest  praises  of 
Trajan,  that  lie  ]\\\{\  cleared  tlie  city  fiom  the  perjured  race  of  in- 
former*.' 


CHAPTER  \X 


OF    THE    ROMAN    PUNISHMENTS. 


I'flK  accurath  Sigonius  has  divided  the  punishments  into  eight 
sorts,  Damnum,  Jlncula,  J^crbcra,  TaliOy  Ignomuiia,  Exilium,  Ser- 
vituSy  3/ors, 

Damnum  was  a  pecuniary  mulct  or  fine  set  upon  the  otfender  ac- 
cording to  the  quality  of  the  crime. 

nncidiim  signifies  the  guilty  person's  being  condemned  to  impri- 
sonment and  fetters,  of  which  tliey  had  maiiy  sorts,  as  mamcXypedi- 
cx,  nervi,  boiit,  and  the  like.  The  public  prison  in  Rome  was  built 
>  Sueion.  in  Tit  chap.  «.  '  Pf«n.  in  Panegyric. 


ov  Ancius  Martins,  hard  by  the  Forum  :"  To  which  anew  part  wai? 
added  by  Servius  Tullius,  called  thence  Tui/iaiunn ;  Sallust  de- 
scribes  the  TidUamtm  as  an  apartment  under  ground,''  into  which 
they  put  the  most  notorious  criminals.  The  higher  part,  raised  by 
Ancus  Martins,  has  commonly  the  name  of  the  robur,  from  the  oak- 
en planks  which  composed  it.  For  the  keeping  of  the  prison,  besides 
the  Triumviri,  there  was  appointed  a  sort  of  gaoler,  whom  Valeri- 
us Maximus  calls  ciistos  carceris/  and  Pliny  co))r7nenfarlcniiis.'^ 

Verbcra,  or  stripes,  were  intlicted  either  with  rods  [virs^cr)  or  with 
batoons  {ftistes:)  the  first  commonly  preceded  capital  punishments 
properly  so  called  ;  the  other  was  most  in  use  in  the  camp,  and  be- 
longed to  the  military  discipline. 

Titlio  was  a  punishment  by  which  the  guilty  person  suffered  ex- 
actly after  the  same  manner  as  he  had  oftendeil  ;  as  in  cases  of  maim- 
ing and  the  like.  Yet  A.  Gellius  informs  us,  that  the  criminal  was 
allowed  the  liberty  of  compounding  with  the  person  he  had  injured ; 
so  that  he  needed  not  suffer  the  talio  unless  he  voluntarily  chose  it.« 

Ignominia  was  no  more  than  a  public  shame  which  the  offending 
person  underwent,  either  by  virtue  of  the  Praetor's  edict,  or  more 
commoidy  by  order  of  the  Censor ;  this  punishment,  besides  the 
scandal,  took  away  from  the  party  on  whom  it  was  inflicted  the  pri- 
vilege of  bearing  any  office,  and  almost  all  other  liberties  of  a  Roman 
citizen. 

FJixium  was  not  a  punishment  immediately,  but  by  consequence ; 
for  the  phrase  used  in  the  sentence  and  laws,  was  aqux  et  ignia  in- 
ffrdictioy  the  forbidding  the  use  of  water  and  lire,  which  being  neces- 
sary for  life,  the  condemned  person  was  obliged  to  leave  his  country. 
Vet  in  the  times  of  the  latter  emperors,  we  find  it  to  have  been  a  po- 
sitive punishment,  as  appears  from  the  civil  law.  Relagalio  may  be 
reckoned  under  this  head,  though  it  were  something  different  from 
the  former;  this  being  the  sending  a  criminal  to  such  a  place,  or  for 
such  a  time,  or  perhaps  for  ever ;  by  which  the  party  was  not  de- 
prived of  the  privilege  of  a  citizen  of  Rome,  as  he  was  in  the  first  sort 
of  banishment,  which  they  propei  ly  called  cxilium.  Suetonius  speaks 
of  a  new  sort  of  relagatio  invented  by  the  emperor  Claudius ;  by 
which  he  ordered  suspected  persons  not  to  stir  three  miles  from  the 
city.*  Besides  this  relagatio^  they  had  two  other  kinds  of  banish- 
nient,  wliich  they  termed  deportatio,  and  pruscriptio  ;  though  nothing 
is  more  common  than  to  have  them  confounded  in  most  authors.  De- 
portatio, or  transportation;  differed  in  these  respects  from  relagalio; 


*  Liv.  lib.  1. 

»»  In  Belle  Catilinar. 

^  Lib.  6. 


'^  Lib.  7.  chap.  58. 

'  A.  Geli.  lib.  11.  cb;'p.  11. 

^  Su«?t.  in  Ciatid,  chap.  So. 


''.'id 


15b 


Oi-    THE  CIVIL  GOVERNMENT 


that  ulipreas  the  rele^uli   were  condemned   either  to  change   their 
country  for  a  set  time,  or  for  ever,  and  lost  neither  their  estate  and 
goods,  nor  the  privilege  of  citizens  ;  on  the  contrary,  the  deporlatl 
were  banished  always  forever,  and  lost  both  their  estates  and  privi- 
leges, being  counted  dead  in  the  law.-     And  as  for  the  proscripti, 
they  are  defined  by  the  lawyers  to  be  "  such  persons  whose  names 
were  fixed  up  in  tablets  at  the  Forum,  to  the  end  that  thev  mijrht  be 
brought  to  justice  ;  a  reward  being  proposed  to  those  that  took  them, 
and  a  punishment  to  those  that  concealed  them.""     Sylla  was  the 
first  inventor  of  this  practice,  and  gave  himself  the  greatest  exam- 
ple of  it  that  we  meet  with,  proscribing  2000  knights  and  senators 
at  once.'  It  is  plain,  that  this  was  not  a  positive  banishment,  but  a 
forcing  persons  to  make  use  of  that  security  ;  so  that  we  may  fancy 
it  of  like  nature  with  our  outlawry. 

Servitus  was  a  punishment,  by  which  the  criminal's  person,  as 
well  as  goods,  was  publicly  exposed  to  sale  by  auction  :  This  rarely 
happened  to  the  citizens,  but  was  an  usual  way  of  treating  captives 
taken  in  war,  and  therefore  \\  ill  be  described  hereafter. 

Under  the  head  of  capital  punishment  {mors,)  the  Romans  reck- 
oned extreme  banislnnent ;  because  those  who  underwent  that  sen- 
tence, were  in  a  civil  sense  dead.  15ut,  because  this  punishment  has 
been  already  described,  we  are  only  now  to  take  notice  of  such  as 
reached  the  offender's  life. 

The  chief  of  these  were  pcrcussio  securiy  strangulatio,  prfeciplta- 
tio  de  robore,  dcjcclio  e  rupe,  Turpeidy  in  cniceni  actio,  aiiilprujfctio 
}yi  projlucntem. 

The  first  was  the  same  as  beheadins:  with  us. 
The  second  was  performed  in  the  prison,  as  it  is  now  in  Turkey. 
The  third  and   fourth  were  a  throwing  the  criminal  headlong, 
either  from  that  part  of  the  prison  called  robitr  ;  or  from  the  highest 
part  of  the  Tarpeian  mountain. 

The  fifth  punishment,  namely  crucifixion,  was  seldom  inflicted  on 
any  but  slaves,  or  the  meanest  of  the  commons ;  yet  we  find  soine 
examples  of  a  ditferent  practice  ;  and  Suetonius  particularly  relates 
of  the  emperor  Galba,  that  having  condemned  a  Roman  citizen  to 
suffer  this  punishment  for  poisoning  his  ward,  the  gentleman,  as  he 
was  carrying  to  execution,  made  a  grievous  complaint  that  a  citizen 
of  Rome  should  undergo  such  a  servile  death,  alleging  the  laws  to 
the  contrary.  The  emperor,  hearing  his  plea,  jiromised  to  alleviate 
the  shame  of  his  sentence,  and   ordered  a  cross,  much  larger  and 

K  C  .Ivin  Lexicon  Juridic.  in  voce  De-     ''  Ibid,  in  voce  Proscripti. 
pMtati  et  Jidesati.  '  Florus,  lib.  2.  chap.  28. 


OF    THE    ROMANS. 


157 


more  neat  than  ordinary,  to  be  erected,  and  to  be  washed  over  with 
white  paint,  that  the  gentlemen,  who  stood  so  much  on  his  quality, 
might  have  the  honour  to  be  hanged  in  state.' 

The  cross  and  the  furca  are  commoidy  taken  for  the  same  thing 
in  authors  ;  though,  properly  speaking,  there  was  a  great  difference 
between  them.  The  furca  is  divided  by  Lipsius  into  ignominiosa 
and  pfpnalis  ;  the  former,  Plutarch  describes  to  be  that  piece  of 
wood  which  supports  the  thill  of  a  waggon  :  He  adds  that  it  was  one 
of  the  greatest  penances  for  a  servant  who  had  oft'ended,  to  take 
this  upon  his  shoulders,  and  carry  it  about  the  neighbourhood ;  for 
whoever  was  seen  with  this  infamous  burtlen,  had  no  longer  any 
credit  or  trust  among  those  who  knew  it,  but  was  called  furcifer, 
by  way  of  ignomy  and  reproach.  Furca  pcitmUiti  was  a  piece  of 
wo(k1,  much  of  the  same  shape  as  the  former,  which  was  fastened, 
about  the  convicted  person's  neck,  he  being  generally  either  scourg- 
ed to  death  under  it,  or  lifted  up  by  it  upon  the  cross.  Lipsius 
makes  it  the  same  with  t\\c  patibuluniy  and  fancies,  that  for  all  the 
name,  it  might  not  be  a  forked  piece  of  timber,  but  rather  a  straight 
beam,  to  which  the  criminal's  arms,  being  stretched  out,  were  tied, 
and  which,  being  hoisted  up  at  the  place  of  execution,  served  for 
the  transverse  part  of  the  cross. 

Projictio  in  projiucnlum  was  a  punishment  proper  to  the  crime  of 
parricide,  or  the  murder  of  any  near  relation.  The  person  convict- 
ed of  this  unnatural  guilt,  was  immediately  hooded,  as  unworthy  of 
the  common  light:  In  the  next  place,  he  was  whipt  with  rods,  and 
then  sewed  up  in  a  sack,  and  thrown  into  the  sea;  or,  in  inland 
countries,  into  the  next  lake  or  river.  Afterwards,  for  an  addition 
to  the  punishment,  a  serpent  used  to  be  put  into  the  sack  with  the 
criminal ;  and  by  degrees  in  latter  times,  an  ape,  a  dog,  and  a  cock. 
The  sack  which  held  the  malefactor  was  termed  cultus;  and  hence 
the  punishment  itself  is  often  signified  by  the  same  name.  The  rea- 
son of  the  addition  of  the  living  creatures  is  thought  to  have  been, 
that  the  condemned  persons  might  be  tormented  ^\itll  such  trouble- 
some company,  and  that  their  carcases  might  want  both  burial  and 
rest.     Juvenal  expressly  alludes  to  this  custom  in  his  eighth  Satire^: 

Jjibe^a  si  dentuv  populo  sujfragia,  g^iis  tain 
PerdttuSy  ut  Uubitet  Senecum  prrferre  A'eroni  ? 
Cujui  suppUcio  non  debut  t  una  paruri 
Simia,  non  serpens  unus,  non  culeus  unus. 

Had  we  the  freedom  lo  express  our  mind, 
There's  not  a  wretcii  so  much  to  vice  mchu'd, 
Biit  will  own  Scnera  did  far  excel 
Ills  pupil,  by  vvl.o-.e  tyranny  he  fell.'' 


•  Suetnn.  in  Galba,  chap.  9. 


^  Plutarch,  in  Goriolaii. 


CiC) 


I 


158  OF    THE    CIVIL    GOVERNMENl 

To  expiate  wao.^c  c'jun>iicult'il  g'lilt, 

>\  nil  soruf  proportion  lo  tlie  blood  lie  spilt, 

Romt*  should  mon-  serpents,  apes  und  sacks  provide, 

Tli.iU  one,  for   lie  compendious  parncidt .  STEP^fKir, 

The  same  poet  in  another  phice  intimates,  that  this  sack  was  made 
of  h'atlier. 

Tullv,  in  his  delencc  of  Sextiis  lloscius,  who  stood  arraigned  for 
paiiK'ide,  has  <^i\en  an  admirable  actount  of  this  punishment,  with 
the  reason  on  which  it  was  j^^rounded  ;  particularly,  that  the  male- 
factoi-  was  thrown  into  tlie  sea,  seweil  up  in  a  sack,  for  fear  he  should 
pollute  that  element  which  was  reckoned  the  common  purifier  of  all 
^hinf^s  ;  with  many  the  like  ingenious  reflections. 

Besides  the  punishments  mentioned  by  ^igonius,  who  seems  to 
consider  the  Romun  people  as  in  a  free  state,  we  meetwithabumlance 
of  others,  either  invented  or  revived  in  the  time»  of  the  empe- 
rors, and  especially  m  latter  ages  ;  among  these,  we  may  take  no- 
tice of  three  as  the  most  considerable,  ud  liahs,  ad  rnttalla,  ad 
bent  in  s. 

The  lawyers  divide  Indus,  when  fhey  take  it  for  a  punishment, 
into  venatoriffs  and  gladiator  ins. ^  Hy  the  former,  the  convicted 
persons  (commonly  slaves)  were  obliged  to  engage  with  the  wild 
beasts  in  the  am[)hitheatre  ;  by  the  latter,  they  were  to  perform  the 
part  of  gladiators,  and  satisfy  justice  by  killing  one  another. 

Ad  metalla,  or  condemning  to  work  in  the  mines,  Suidas  would 
have  to  be  invented  by  Tarquinius  Superbus. '  Whatever  reason 
he  luid  for  his  assertion,  it  is  certain  we  rarely  find  it  mentioned 
till  the  times  of  the  later  emperors;  and  particularly  in  the  histo 
vies  of  the  jiersecutions  of  the  Christians,  who  were  usually  sent  in 
great  numbers  to  this  laborious  and  slavish  employment,  with  the 
name  of  inctalliii. 

The  throwing  of  persons  to  wild  beasts,  was  never  put  in  execu- 
tion, but  upon  the  vilest  and  most  despicable  malefactors,  in  crimes 
of  tUe  highest  nature.  This  too  was  the  common  doom  of  the  primi 
tive  Christians;  ami  it  is  to  the  accounts  of  their  suflerings  we 
are  beholden  for  the  knowledge  of  it.  It  maybe  observed,  that  the 
phrase  Ad  bentutfi  dariy  aftects  as  well  such  criminals  as  were  con- 
demned to  fight  with  the  beasts,  as  those  who  were  delivered  to 
them  to  be  devoured  :  And  the  former  of  these  were  properly  termed 
beatiarii.'' 

There  is  still  one  punishment  behind  worth  our  observation,  and 
which  seems  to  have  been  proper  to  incendiaries,  and  that  was  tin; 
wrapping  up  the  criminal  in  a  sort  of  coat,  daubed  over  with  pitch. 


OF   THE    ROMANS. 


159 


iiud  then  setting  it  on  fire.  Thus,  when  Nero  had  burnt  Rome,  to 
satisfy  his  curiosity  with  the  prospect,  he  contrived  to  lay  the  odium 
on  the  Christians,  as  a  sort  of  men  generally  detested  :  and  seizing 
on  all  he  could  discover,  ordered  them  to  be  lighted  up  in  this  man- 
ner, to  serve  for  tapers  in  the  dark ;  which  was  a  much  more  cruel 
jest  than  the  former,  that  occasioned  it.  Juvenal  alludes  to  this  cus- 
tom in  his  eighth  Satire  : 

Jusi  quod  liceat  tunica  punire  molestd 
To  recompense  uhost-  barbarous  intent, 
Vilch'd  sliirts  would  prove  a  legal  punibhment. 


'  (/al\  in   i.v     0  Ml  .lundic. 
'•'  111  voce  ^  «T«^^oj. 


«'  C.lvni   n\  \^)Ce  ,id bestias  da' 
•  Ibid,  in  Hfstiir::. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

OF  THE  ROMAN  LAWS   IN  GENERAL. 

IN  the  beginning  of  the  Roman  state,  we  are  assured  all  thin^si 
were  managed  by  the  sole  authority  of  the  king,  without  any  certain 
standard  of  justice  and  equity.  But  when  the  city  grew  tolerably 
poi)ul()Us,  and  was  divided  by  Romulus  into  thirty  curias,  he  began 
to  prefer  laws  at  the  assembly  of  those  curix,  which  were  confirm- 
ed, and  universally  received.  The  like  practice  was  followed  by 
Numa,  and  several  other  kings  ;  all  whose  constitutions,  being  col- 
lected in  one  body  by  Sextus  Papirius,  who  lived  in  the  time  of  Tar- 
quin  the  Proud,  took  from  him  the  name  of  jus  Papirianum. 

iiut  all  these  were  abrogated  soon  after  the  expulsion  of  the  royal 
family,  and  the  judicial  proceedings  for  many  years  together  de- 
depended  only  on  custom  and  the  judgment  of  the  court.  At  last,  to 
redress  this  inconvenience,  commissioners  were  sent  into  Greece, 
to  make  a  collection  of  the  best  laws  for  the  service  of  their  coun- 
try ;  and  at  their  return,  the  Decemviri  were  created  to  regulate  the 
business,  who  reduced  them  into  twelve  tables,  as  has  been  already 
shewn.  The  excellency  of  which  institution,  as  it  is  sufficiently  set 
fortli  by  most  authors,  so  is  it  especially  beholden  to  the  high  enco- 
mium of  Cicero,  when  he  declares  it  as  his  positive  judgment  and 
opinion,  that  "  the  laws  of  the  twelve  tables  are  justly  to  be  prefer- 
red to  whole  libraries  of  the  philosopers.'" 

They  were  divided  into  three  parts,  of  which  the  first  related  to 
the  concerns  of  religion  ;  the  second  to  the  rights  of  the  public ;  and 
the  last  to  private  persons. 

"  Cicero,  de  Oratore,  lib  1 .    " 


IbO 


Ol    niK  CIVIL  GOVERNMENT 


These  laws  bein^  establishcH,  it  necessarily  followed,  thattherc 
sliould  be  disputations  and  controversies  in  the  courts,  since  the  in- 
terpretation was  to  be  founded  upon  the  anihority  of  the  learned. 
This  interpretation  they  called  ;Vv  civUe,  thou<rh  at  present  we  un- 
derstand, by  that  phrase,  the  vhole  system  of  the  Roman  laws. 

Besides,  out  of  all  these  laws  the  learned  men  of  that  time  com- 
posed a  scheme  of  forms  and  cases,  by  which  the  processes  in  the 
courts  were  directed.  These  were  termed  actionem  I e-^h. 

We  may  add  to  these  the  laws  preferred  at  the  public  assemblies 
of  the  people  ;  and  the  p/fhisrifa,  made  without  the  authority  of  the 
senate,  at  the  Comitia  TrUmla,  which  were  allowed  to  be  of  ecjual 
force  w  ith  other  constitutions,  though  they  were  not  honoured  with 
the  title  of  hifes. 

And  then  (he  senatus-comulta,  and  edicts  of  the  supreme  maj^is- 
trates,  particularly  of  the  Prjctors,  made  up  two  more  sorts  of  laws, 
the  last  of  which  they  oiUlh}  jus  /lOHoraniwi. 

And  lastly  when  the  government  was  intrusted  in  the  hands  of  a 
single  person,  whatever  he  ordained  had  the  authority  of  a  law,  with 
the  name  of  pr  hi  a  pa  lis  const  itudo. 

Most  of  these  daily  increasing,  gave  so  much  scope  to  the  lawyers 
for  the  compiling  of  repoi  ts  and  other  labours,  that,  in  the  reign  of 
Justinian,  there  were  extant  two  thousand  distinct  volumes  on  this 
subject.  The  body  of  the  law  being  thus  grown  unwieldly,  and  ren- 
dered almost  useless  by  its  excessive  bulk,  that  excellent  emperor 
entered  on  a  design  to  bring  it  into  just  dimensions  ;  which  was 
happily  accomplished  in  the  constituting  those  four  tomes  of  the  ci- 
vil law  which  are  now  extant,  and  have  contributed,  in  a  great  meas- 
ure, to  the  regulating  of  all  the  states  in  Christendom  :  so  that  the 
old  fancy  of  the  Romans  about  the  eternity  of  the  command  is  !iot 
so  ridiculous  as  at  first  sig'.t  it  appears  ;  since,  by  their  admirable 
sanctions,  they  are  still  like  to  govern  for  ever. 


OF  THE  ROMANS.. 


l^l 


CHAPTER  XXIL 

OF  THE  LAWS  IN'  PARTICULAR  ;    AND    FIRST,    OF    THOSE    RELATING  TO 

RELIGION. 

AS  for  the  laws  of  the  twelve  tables,  and  other  more  ancient  insti- 
tutions, as  it  would  require  no  ordinary  stock  of  criticism  barely  to 
explain  their  words  ;  so  is  the  knowledge  of  them  almost  useless, 
since  they  are  so  seldom  mentioned  by  the  classics.  Those  which  we 
generally  meet  with  are  such  as  were  preferred  by  some  particular 
magistrate,  from  whom  they  took  their  names ;  these,  by  reason  of 
their  frecjuent  occurrence  in  the  best  writers,  deserve  a  short  expli- 
cation, according  to  the  common  heads  laid  down  by  those  authors 
who  have  hitherto  managed  this  subject;  beginning  with  such  as 
concerned  the  public  worship,  and  the  ceremonies  of  religion. 

Sitlpicia  Scmpronia  Lex^  the  authors  P.  Sulpicius  Saverria  and  P. 
Scmpronius  Sophus,  in  their  consulship,  A.  449,  ordaining,  that  no 
person  should  consecrate  any  temple  or  altar  without  the  order  of 
the  senate,  and  the  major  ])art  of  the  tribunes. i 

Paplrla  Ltx^  the  author  L.  Pa])irius,  Tribune  of  the  commons ; 
commanding  that  no  person  should  have  the  liberty  of  consecrating 
any  edifice,  place,  or  thing,  without  the  leave  of  the  commons. "^ 

Cornelia  Lex,  the  author  L.  Cornelius  Sylla,  defining  the  expen- 
ses of  funerals.** 

Sextia  Licinia  Lex,  the  author  L.  Sextus  and  LIcinius,  Tribunes 
of  the  commons,  A.  385,  commanding,  that  instead  of  the  Duumviri 
sacris  faciundis,  a  Decemvirate  should  be  created,  part  out  of  the 
Patricians,  and  part  out  of  the  commons.^ 

Ogulnia  Lex,  the  authors  Q.  and  Cn.  Ogulnii,  Tribunes  of  the 
commons,  A.  453,  commanding,  that  whereas  there  were  then  but 
four  Pontificcs,  and  four  Augurs,  five  more  should  be  added  out  of 
the  commons  to  each  order." 

ManUa  Lex,  the  author  P.  Manlius,  Tribune  of  the  commons,  A. 
557,  enacted  for  the  revival  of  the  Tresviri  Epulones,  an  old  insti- 
tution by  Numa.' 

Clodia  Lex,  the  author  P.  Clodius,  in  his  tribuneship,  A.  664,  di- 
vestin'^  the  priest  of  Cybele  (or  the  great  mother,  who  came  from 


1  Liv.  Ub.  9. 

•  Cicero  in  Orat.  pro  Domo  sua. 

•  Piut.  in  Sylla. 


*  Liv  lib.  6. 

"  Liv.  lib.  10. 

•  Cic.  de  Orat.  lib.  3. 


162 


OF  THE  CIVIL  GOVERNMENT 


OF  THE  ROMANS. 


idJ 


Pessliium)  of  his  oilice,  and  conferring  it  on  Brotigarus,  a  (iallo- 
Grecian/' 

Fapia  Lex,  ordering  the  maimer  of  choosing  the  vestal  virgins,^ 
as  lias  been  already  described. 

The  punishment  of  (hose  holy  recluses  is  grounded  on  the  laws 
of  Nuina. 

Licinia  LvXy  preferred  by  C  Licinius  Crassus,  Tiibune  of  the 
commons,  A.  608,  for  the  transferring  the  right  of  choosing  priests 
from  the  college  to  the  people  :     but  it  did  not  pass.' 

Domitia  Lex,  the  author  Cn.  Domitius  Ahenobarbus,  Tribune  of 
the  commons,  A.  650,  actually  transferring  the  said  right  to  the' 
people. ' 

Cornelia  I^ex,  the  author  L.  Cornelius  Svlla,  Dictator  and  Consul 
with  Q.  Metellus,  A.  677,  abr.gating  the  farmer  law  of  Domitius, 
and  restoring  tiie  privilege  there  mentioned  to  the  college. •* 

Attia  Lex,  the  author  T.  Attius  Labienus,  Tribune  of  the  com- 
mons, A.  690,  repealing  the  Cornelian  law,  and  restoring  the  Do- 
mitian.' 

Snlonia  I^eXy  the  author  M.  Antony,  in  his  consulship  with  Ju- 
lius Csesar,  A.  700,  abrogating  the  Attian  law,  and  restoring  the 
Cornelian.'  Paulus  Aianutius  has  conjectured  from  several  rea- 
sons, that  this  law  of  Antony  was  afterwards  repealed,  and  the  right 
of  choosing  priests  entrusted  in  the  hands  of  the' people. 

To  this  head  is  commonly  referred  the  law  about  the  exemption 
from  military  service,  or  de  vucalione,  in  which  there  was  a  very  re- 
markable clause.  Nisi  beliinn  Gallicum  exoriatiir,  unless  in  case  of 
a  (iallic  insurrection;  in  which  case  no  persons,  not  the  priests 
themselves,  were  excused  ;  the  Romans  apprehending  more  danger 
from  the  Ciauls  than  from  any  other  nation,  because  they  had  once 
taken  ll»eir  city. 

As  also  the  three  laws  about  the  shows. 

Licinia  Lex,  the  author  P.  Licinius  Varus,  City-Praetor,  A.  545, 
settling  the  day  for  the  celebration  of  the  LjuU  ^ipollinares,  which 
before  was  uncertain.' 

RoHcia  Lex  ThcatraUs,  the  author  L.  lioscius  Otho,  Tribune  of 
the  commons,  A.  685,  ordaining,  that  none  should  sit  in  the  first  four- 

w  Cicero  in  Oral,  pro  Sext.  et  de  Ha-     ''  xVsconiiis  In  Divinationc. 
rusp.  Respons.  '  Dio.  lib.  37.  ^  Dio  lib.  44. 

>*  A  (iellius.  *  Flut.  in  Marcel.  Cic.  pro  Fonleio  et 

y  Cic.de  Amicitia.  ^  Idem.     Philip.  8. 

'  Suet,  in  Ner.  Patercul.  lib.  2  Cic.  '  1-iv.  lib.  27.  Alex.  Neapolitan,  &c. 
Agrar.  2. 


teen  seats  of  the  theatre,  unless  they  were  worth  four  hundred  ses- 
tertia,  which  was  then  reckoned  the  censm  equestris.^ 

Augustus  Cxsar,  after  several  of  the  equestrian  families  had  im- 
paired their  estates  in  the  civil  wars,  interrupted  this  law  so  as  to 
take  in  all  those  whose  ancestors  ever  had  possessed  the  sum  there 
spj'rified. 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

LAWS  RELATING  TO  THE  RIGHTS   AND  PRIVILEGES  OE  THE  RO- 
MAN CITIZENS. 

VALERL^  Lex  de  Provocaiione,  the  author  P.  Valerius  Poplico- 
la,  sole  Consul  upon  the  death  of  his  colleairue  Brutus,  A.  243,  giv- 
ing liberty  to  appeal  from  any  magistrate  to  the  people,  and  order- 
ino-  that  no  magistrate  should  i)unish  a  Roman  citizen  in  case  of 
such  an  appeal.'' 

Valeria  Horaiia  Lex,  the  authors  L.  Valerius  and  M.  Horatius, 
Consuls,  A.  304,  reviving  the  former  law,  which  had  lost  its  force 
under  the  Decemvirate.' 

Valeria  Lex  Tertia,  the  author  M.  Valerius  Corvinus,  in  his  con- 
sulship with  Q.  Apuleius  Pansa,  A.  453,  no  more  than  a  confirma- 
tion of  the  first  Valerian  law .' 

Porcia  Lex,  the  author  M.  Porcius,  Tribune  of  the  commons,  in 
the  same  year  as  the  former;  commanding  that  no  magistrate  should 
execute,  or  punish  with  rods,  a  citizen  of  Rome  ;  but,  upon  the  sen- 
tence of  condemnation,  should  give  him  permission  to  go  into  exile.*^ 

Sempronix  Zeg-e,v,  the  author  Sempronius  Gracchus,  Tribune  of 
the  commons,  A.  630,  commanding  that  no  capital  judgment  should 
pass  upon  a  citizen,  without  the  authority  of  the  people,  and  making 
several  other  regulations  in  this  aftair.' 

Papia  Lex  de  Peregrinis,  the  author  C.  Papius,  Tribune  of  the 
commons,  A.  688,  commanding  that  all  strangers  should  be  expell- 
ed Rome."* 

I  Cic.  Philip.  2.  Ascon.  in  Cornelian.  Juven.  Sut.  3.  and  14.     Herat.  Epod.  4 

Kpisl   1. 

''  Liv.  lib.  9.  Plut.  in  Pop'icol-  &c. 

'    Liv.  lib.  3  >  L.v.  lib.  10. 

'    Liv.li  '.  10.  Cic.  pro  Kiibirio.     *-'  dlust.  in  Citiiinar.     Sueloii.  m  Nrr.  &r 

1  Cic.  pro  Uabirio  ;  pro  Douio  sua;  pro  Clueiilio,  ^c. 

^  Cic.  pro  Halbo 


tW*-^ 


1 04 


Ul     THE    CIVIL    GOVERNMENT 


OF    THE    ROMANS. 


165 


Jiinia  Lex,  the  author  M.Junius  Peiinus,  coiifirmini;  the  lorinur 
law,  and  foibiddinj^  that  any  stranj^ers  should  be  allowed  the  privi 
ieire  of  citi/AMis. 

StrvHia  Lex,  the  author  C.  Servilius  Glaucia,  ordaining  that  il 
<iiiv  Latin  accused  a  Homan  senator,  so  that  he  was  convicted,  the 
accuser  should  be  hon(»ured  with  the  privilege  ofa  citizen  of  liome." 

Licuiiu  Mtitia  Lex,  the  authors,  L.  Licinius  Crassus  and  Q.  Mu- 
tins  Sca^vola,  in  their  consulship,  A.  6.38,  ordering  all  the  iniiabi- 
tants  of  Italy  to  be  eniolled  in  the  list  of  citi/Aiis,  in  their  own  pro- 
per  cities.'' 

fjivid  Lex  de  Sociis  ;  in  the  year  of  the  city  602,  M.  Livlus  Dru- 
sus  proposed  a  law  to  make  all  the  Italians  free  denisons  of  Rome; 
but,  before  it  came  to  be  voted,  he  wa^  f(Miiid  mu:dered  in  his  house; 
the  perpetrator  was  unknown,' 

I'ariu  Lex ;  upon  the  death  of  Drusus,  the  knights  prevailed  with 
his  colleague  Q.  Varius  Hybrida,  to  bring  in  a  bill  for  tlie  prosecut- 
ing all  such  peisons  as  should  be  discovered  to  have  assisted  the 
ftalian  people  in  the  petition  for  the  privilejjje  of  the  city. 

Ju/ia  Iax  de  Cicitate  ;  the  next  year,  upon  the  revolt  of  several 
states  in  Italy  (which  they  called  the  social  war)  L.  Julius  Cixrsar, 
the  Consul,  made  a  law,  that  all  those  peoj)le  who  had  continued  firm 
to  the  Roman  interest,  should  have  the  privilege  of  citizens  ;**  that 
in  the  year  664,  upon  the  conclusion  of  that  war,  all  the  Italian  peo- 
ple were  admitted  into  the  ndl  of  free  denisons.  and  diMded  intt 
eight  new  tribes. 

Sijlcani  et  Carhonh  Lex,  the  authors  Sylvanus  and  Carbo,  Tri- 
bunes of  the  commons,  in  the  year  664,  ordaining,  that  any  persons 
who  had  been  admitted  free  denisons  of  anv  of  the  confederate  ci- 
cies,  and  had  a  dwelling  in  Italy  at  the  time  of  the  making  of  this 
law,  and  had  carried  in  their  name  to  the  Prittor  in  sixty  days  time, 
should  have  the  privilege  of  citizens  of  Rome." 

Sulpuia  IjfXy  the  author  P.  Sulpicius,  Tribune  of  the  commons, 
A.  ^(^5,  ordaining,  that  the  new  citizens,  who  composed  the  eight 
tribes,  should  be  divided  among  the  thirty-five  old  tiibes,  as  a  great- 
er honour. "^ 

Cornelia  Lex,  the  author  L.  Cornelius  Sulla,  A.  670,  a  confir- 
mation (d' the  former  law,  to  please  the  Italian  confederates.* 

Cornelia   Li'^do  Munici//ii>},  iha  author  tlie   same   Sulla,  in  hi? 


"  Tie.  cle  OfF.c.  lll)..l. 


^   Cic.  ill  liruto.  \  .'.I    M.v    lih.  S'.rl.ap.  f) 


"  Ascon.  in  Orut.  pro   Scaiiro.  Cic.     *   Cic,  pro  Hajho. 


prf>  lialbo. 

P  Cic.tlo  Odir.  lib.  .I.  et  pro  IJilho, 

")   Flor.  I 
lib,  3. 


1  - 


di'  I-cg". 


'  Ai)(;iiin.  lib.  1. 

"  C'ic.  pro  .\rci»ia. 

*'   I'I'it    in  ^yll:i.  Kpit.  l/»v. 

"  K-.it.  i.;v  ('a. 


dictatorship,  taking  away  the  privilege  fo.merly  granted  to  the  cor- 
porate towns,  frotu  as  many  as  had  assisted  Marius,  Cinna,  feuipi- 
cius,  or  any  of  the  contrary  faction. 

Gellia  Cornelia  Lex,  the  authors  L.  Gellius  PopUcola,  and  Cn. 
Cornelius  Lentulus,  A.  681,  ordaining,  that  ah  those  persons  \v,;om 
Pompey,  by  his  own  authority,  had  honoured  with  the  privilet^e  of 
the  city,  should  actually  keep  that  liberty.* 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

LAWS    CONCERNING    MEETINGS    AND    ASSEMBLIES. 

jELLi  Lex,  ordaining  that,  in  all  assemblies  of  the  people,  the 
Augurs  should  make  observations  from  the  heavens;  and  that  the 
magistrate  should  have  the  power  of  declaring  against  the  proceed- 
ings, and  of  interposing  in  the  decision  of  any  matter. 

Fusia  Lex,  ordaining,  that  upon  some  certain  days,  though  they 
were  Fasti,  it  should  be  unlawful  to  transact  any  thing  in  a  meeting 
of  the  people. 

The  authors  of  these  two  laws  are  unknown;  but  P.  Manutius 
conjectures,  that  the  first  w as  made  b^  Q.  ^£lius  Paetus,  Consul  with 
M.Junius  Pennus,  A.  586 ;  the  other  by  P.  Furius,  or  Fusius,  Con- 
sul with  S.  Attilius  Serranus,  A.  617.  The  laws  themselves  occur 
frequently  in  writers. 

Clodia  Lex,  the  author  P.  Clodius,  Tribune  of  the  commons,  A. 
695,  containing  an  abrogation  of  the  greatest  part  of  the  two  former 
laws,  and  ordering,  that  no  observation  should  be  made  from  tiie 
heavens  upon  the  days  of  the  Comitia  ;  and  that  on  any  of  the  Liies 
Fasti,  laws  might  be  enacted  in  a  public  assembly. y 

Curia  Lex,  the  author  M.  C'urius  Dentatus,  Tribune  of  the  com- 
mons, A.  454,  ordaining  that  no  Comitia  should  be  convened  for  the 
election  of  magistrates  without  the  approbation  of  the  senate ;  Ut 
ante  Comitia  Magi^tratuurn  Pat  res  auctorcs  fierent,'- 

Claudia  Lex,  the  author  M.  Claudius  MarccUus,  Consul  with 
Serv.  Sulpicius  Rufus,  A.  702,  ordering,  that  at  the  Comitia  for  the 
•"'lection  of  magistrates,  no  account  should  be  taken  of  the  aOseiit." 


\v 


Cic.  pro  Domo  sua. 
Cic.  pro  lialbo. 
Ascon.  in  Pison. 


*  Cic.  de  Claris  Oratoribus. 
^  isuet.  in  juliu. 


166 


OF   THh  CIVIL  GOVFWKMFM 


OF    THE    ROMANS. 


16' 


Gafnnlu  Lr.r,  the  author  A.  Gabinius.  Tribune  of  the  commons. 
A  Gl4,rou.man.linj;  that,  in  the  Comitia  for  the  election  ol  nia^;is. 
trate^.  the  people  should  not  ^nve  their  suftVag;es  viva  voce,  but  by 
taliets,  for  the  -reater  freedom  and  impartiality  of  the  proceeding;s.^ 
'  Cassia  Jau:  enacted  about  two  years  after,  commanding,  that  in 
the  courts  of  ju^llce,  and  in  the  Comilia  Tributa,  the  votes  should 
be  »nven  in  a  free  manner;  that  is,  by  tablets.*^ 

rnjnjna  Ux,  the  author  C.  Papyrius  Carbo,  Tribune  of  the  com- 
nions,'A.  (i21,  ordaining,  that  in  the  Comitia  about  the  passing  or 
rejectnig  of  laws,  tlie  surtVa-es  should  be  given  by  tablets." 

'  C<dia  Lex,  the  author  ('alius,  Tribune  of  the  commons,  A.  635, 
ordaining,  that  in  the  judicial  proceedings  before  the  people,  in  cases 
of  treason  (which  had  been  excepted  by  the  Cassian  law)  the  votes 

sliould  be  given  by  tablets.' 

Snnpronia  Lex.  the  author  C.  Sempronius  Gracchus,  in  the  same 
year  as  the  former;  ordering,  that  the  centuries  should  be  chosen 
out  by  lot  to  give  their  vole.,  and  not  according  to  the  order  of  the 

Maria  L(.>\  the  aull.or  C.  Marius,  Tribune  of  the  commons.  A. 
6  34  oraoru.g  the  b>  i.lges,  or  long  planks,  on  which  the  people  stood 
in  the  Comitia  to  give  their  voices,  to  be  made  narrower,  that  no 
other  persons  might  stand  there,  to  hinder  the  proceedings  by  ap- 
peals or  other  disturbances.-  ,        ™  -,  c 

ScmproJiia  Lex,  the  author  C.  Sempronius  Gracchus,  Tribune  of 
the  commons,  A.  565.  ordaining  that  the  Latin  conlederatcs  should 
have  the  privilege  of  giving  their  suftiages.  as  well  as  the  Roman 

citizens.''  .  ^  ,  4 

Manilla  Lex,  the  author  C .  Manilius,  Tribune  of  the  commons  A. 
687  ordaining,  that  the  libertini  should  have  the  pr.vdege  ot  voting 

in  all  the  tribes.'  ,      .  ui 

Gabinia  Lex,  a  confirmation  of  an  old  law  ol  the  twelve  ables, 
making  it  a  capital  oftence  for  any  person  to  convene  a  clandestine 
assembly.' 

b  Cic.  .1e  Anucit.  et  pro  PUmlio,  ct     •    Sallus,.  in  O rat  2.  "'1  *;--;;^- 


f   C'C.  in  \yx\\o 

d  Ci«'.  -'e  Leg.  lib.  3 

•  Id.  Ibid 


h  Cic.  sapisstvie 

»  Cic  pro  iir^e  Munilia. 

'  Sallust.  in  CuUlinar. 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

LAWS   RELATING  TO    THE    SLNArE. 

CASSIA  Lex,  the  autluu-  L.  Cassius  Longinus,  Tribune  of  the 
commons,  A.  649,  ordaining  that  no  person  who  had  been  condemn- 
ed or  deprived  of  his  office  by  the  people,  should  have  the  privilege 
of  coming  into  the  senate.'' 

Claudia  Lex,  the  author  Q.  Claudius,  Tribune  of  the  commons, 
A.  535,  commanding,  that  no  senator,  or  father  of  a  senator,  should 
possess  a  sailing  vessel  of  above  three  hundred  Amphorae;  this  was 
thought  big  enough  for  the  bringing  over  fruits  and  other  necessa- 
ries;  and  as  for  gain  procured  by  trading  in  merchandize,  they 
thought  it  unworthy  the  dignity  of  that  order.' 

Sulpicia  Lex,  the  author  Servius  Sulpicius,  Tribune  of  the  com- 
mons, A.  665,  requiring  that  no  senator  should  owe  above  two  thou- 

sand  drachmse."' 

Sentia  Lex,  the  author  (probably)  C.  Sentius  consul  with  Q.  Lu- 
cretius, A.  r34,  in  the  time  of  Augustus  ;  ordering  that  in  the  room 
of  such  noblemen  as  were  wanting  in  the  senate,  others  should  be 

substituted." 

Gabiniu  Lex,  the  author  A.  Gabinius,  Tribune  of  the  commons, 
A.  685,  ordering,  that  tlie  senate  should  be  convened,  from  the  ka- 
lends of  February,  to  the  kalends  of  March,  every  day,  for  the  giv- 
ing- audience  to  foreign  ministers." 

"^Piipia  Lex,  ordaining  that  the  :^enate  should  not  be  convened  from 
the  eighteenth  of  the  kalends  of  February,  to  the  kalends  of  the 
same  month  ;  and  tliat,  before  the  embassies  were  either  accepted  or 
rejected,  the  senate  should  be  held  on  no  other  account,*' 

TuUia  Lex,  the  autlior  M.  Tullius  Cicero,  consul  with  C.  Anto- 
ny, A.  690,  ordainins:,  that  such  persons  to  whom  the  senate  had 
allowed  the  favour  of  a  libera  legatio,  should  hold  that  honour  no 
longer  than  a  year.  Libera  legatio  was  a  privilege  that  the  senators 
ftfte'ii  obtained  for  the  going  into  any  province,  or  country,  where 
they  had  some  private  business,  in  the  quality  of  lieutenants ; 
though  with  no  command,  but  only  that  the  dignity  of  their  titular 
office  might  have  an  influence  on  the  management  of  their  private 
roncerns.* 


•t  Ascon.  in  Cornelian 
1    Cic   Verrem,  7. 
•«  Pint,  in  Sylla 
^  Tnnl  An   "^ 


o  Cic.Epist  ad  Quin  FrHir.  lib.  2.  ep.  12, 
?  Cic  lit).  1  ^l>  4  at  LentuI   lib.  2,  ep 
2.  ad  Quin   Fntr.  &c. 
•  Ci ;   tl**  L'Gg  lib.  3. 


IfiS 


OF     IIIK    CIVIL    CiOVKRNMENT 


CHVPTKR  XXVI. 

LAWS    KLLATING    TO    THK    MAGISTRATES. 

LEX  Villa  Annalh,  or  Jlnnariity  the  author  1^.  Villius  ffor  wlioiu 
we  sometimes  tirul  li.  Julius,  or  Lucius  Tullius)  Tribune  of  the  com- 
mons, A.  ~CA,  detinlni;  llie  pnjper  ai!;e  requisite  for  bearing;  of  all  the 
ma»»-istracies.'  Livv,  ^vho  relates  the  making  of  this  law,  does  not 
insist  on  the  particular  ages;  and  learned  men  are  much  divideil 
about  that  point.  Lipsius  states  the  difference  after  this  manner; 
the  aj^e  ])roper  to  sue  for  the  Quaestorship  he  makes  twenty-live 
years  ;  for  the  i'ldilesand  Tribunes,  twenty-seven  or  twenty-eight; 
thirty  for  the  Pn^etor,  and  forty-two  for  the  Consuls. 

Genntia  Lex,  the  author  L.  Genutius,  I'ribune  of  the  commons, 
A.  411,  commanding,  that  no  person  should  bear  the  same  magistra- 
cy within  ten  years  distance,  nor  should  be  invested  with  two  oflit  es 
in  one  year.^ 

Corndia  LcXy  the  autlior  Cornelius  8ylla  the  I)ictat(u-,  A.  073,  a 
repetition  and  confirmation  of  the  former  law.* 

Scmpronia  Lex,  the  author  ('.  Sempronius  Gracchus,  Tribune  oi 
the  commons,  A.  630,  ordaining,  that  no  person,  who  had  been  law 
fully  deprived  of  his  magistracy,  should  be  capable  of  bearing  an  of- 
fice again.  This  was  abrogated  afterwards  by  the  author." 

Cornelia  Lex,  the  author  L.  (>oriielius  Sylla,  Dictator  ;  ordaining, 
(hat  such  persons  as  had  embraced  his  party  in  the  late  troubles, 
should  have  the  privilege  of  bearing  honours  before  they  were  capa- 
ble by  age  ;  and  that  the  children  of  those  who  had  been  proscribed 
-ihould  lose  the  power  of  standing  for  any  office.^ 

//irtia  Lex,  the  Author  A.  Ilirtius;  ordaining  that  none  of  Pom- 
pey's  party  should  be  admitted  to  any  dignity.^* 

Sextia  lAvinia  Lex,  the  authors  Licinius  and  L.  Sextius,  Tri- 
bunes of  the  commons,  A.  3l(),  ordaining,  that  one  of  the  Consuls 
should  be  chosen  out  of  the  body  of  the  commons.^ 

Genutia  Lex,  the  author  h.  Genutius,  Tribune  of  the  comnion^, 
A.  411,  making  it  lawful  that  both  Consuls  might  be  taken  out  of 
the  commons.* 


»  Liv   li,>.  40 

*  Idtn  ,  lib  7. 

■   Ajjpian.  lib.  1.  dc  Bell.  Civil. 

«  IMut.  in  (iracchis. 


"^  rlin.  lib.  7.  Quintil.  lib    11    chap 
1.  C'"c.  in  Pi^   .». 
w  Cic.  Pl.i.ip.  1". 
•^   Liv.  lib.  6.  y  Idem,  lib   7 


OF  THE    ROMANS. 


169 


Cornelia  Lex,  the  author  L.  Cornelius  Sylla,  Dictator,  A.  673,  or- 
daining, that  the  Praetors  should  always  use  the  same  method  in  ju- 
dicial processes.  For  the  Praetors  used,  upon  the  entrance  on  their 
office,  to  i)ut  u|)  an  edict,  to  shew  wliat  way  they  designed  to  pro- 
ceed in  all  causes  during  their  year :  these  edicts,  which  before  com- 
monly varied,  were  by  this  law  ordered  to  be  always  the  same,  for 
the  preserving  a  constant  and  regular  course  of  justice. =' 

Mnrcia  Ze.r,  the  author  Marcius  Censorinus,  forbidding  any  per- 
son to  bear  the  censorship  twice.' 

Clodia  Lex,  the  author  P.  Clodius,  Tribune  of  the  commons,  A. 
695,  ordering,  that  the  Censors  should  put  no  mark  of  infamy  on  any 
person  in  their  general  surveys,  unless  the  person  had  been  accused 
and  condemned  by  both  the  Censors;  whereas  before  they  used  to 
punish  persons,  by  omitting  their  names  in  their  surveys,  and  by  other 
means,  whether  they  were  accused  or  not ;  and  what  one  Censor 
did,  unless  the  other  actually  interposed,  was  of  eciual  force  as  if 
both  had  joined  in  the  action." 

CiBcilia  Lex,  the  author  Q.  Cxcilius  Metellus  Pius,  Consul  with 
Pompey  the  Great,  A.  701 ,  restoring  their  ancient  dignity  and  power 
to  the  Censors,  which  had  been  retrenched  by  the  former  law.^ 

Anhmia  Lex,  the  author  M.  Antony,  a  member  of  the  Triumvi- 
rate ;  ordaining,  that  for  the  future,  no  proposal  should  be  ever  made 
for  the  creation  of  a  dictator ;  and  that  no  person  should  ever  ac- 
cept of  that  office,  upon  pain  of  incurring  a  capital  penalty.** 

Tilia  Lex,  the  author  P.  Titius,  Tribune  of  the  commons,  A.  710, 
ordaining,  that  a  triumvirate  of  magistrates,  invested  with  consular 
power,  should  be  settled  for  five  years,  for  the  regulating  the  com- 
monwealth; and  that  the  honour  should  be  conferred  on  Octavius, 

Lepidus,  and  Antony. "^ 

Valeria  Lex,  the  author  P.  Valerius  Poplicola,  sole  Consul,  A. 
^243,  ordaining  that  the  public  treasure  should  be  laid  up  in  the  tem- 
ple of  Saturn,  and  that  two  Quaestors  should  be  created  to  super- 
vise it.*^ 

Junia  Sacrata  Lex,  the  author  L.  Junius  Brutus,  the  first  Tribune 
of  the  commons,  A.  260,  ordaining  that  the  persons  of  the  Tribunes 
should  be  sacred ;  that  an  appeal  might  be  made  to  them  from  the 
determinations  of  the  Consuls ;  and  that  none  of  the  senators  should 
be  capable  of  that  office. ^ 

Atinia  Lex,  the  author  Atinius,  Tribune  of  the  commons,  ordain 

^  Cic.  Philip.  2.  '^  Appian.  de  Bell.  ^''^   lib.  3. 

*  P  ;it.  in  Coriol.  '  ^'lor.  Epit.  Liv.  lib.  120        ^ 

b  Cic.  in  Pison.  pro  Milon.  pro  Sex-  ^  Liv.  lil..2  Plat,  in  Popliro,. 

\\o,kr  J>io  lib. 'lO  Di^nys.  lib. '^. 


170 


OF  Tift  CIVIL  GOVERNMLN'l 


or    THE     ROMANS. 


171 


in"-,  Unit  any  Tribune  of  the  coinni  ns  shoulii  have  the  privilege  of 
a  senator  ;  aiul,  as  such,  take  his  place  in  Vw  liouse." 

Cornelia  Lex,  the  anther  L.  Cornelius  Svlla,  Dictator,  A.  673, 
takinn;  away  from  the  Tribunes  the  power  of  inaklii-  laws,  ami  ol 
interposing,  of  holding  assemblies  and  receiving  appeals,  and  mak- 
ing- all  that  had  borne  that  ollice  incapable  of  any  other  dignity  in 
the  commonwealth.' 

Aurelia  Lev,  the  author  C.  Aurelius  Cotta,  Consul  with  L.  Octa- 
vius,  A.  ()78,  an  abroi;ation  of  son»e  pait  of  the  former  law,  allowing 
the  Tribunes  to  hold  their  other  ottices  afterwards.* 

Pompiia  Lex,  the  author  Pompey  the  Great,  Consul  with  M. 
Crassus,  A.  G8.>,  restoring  their  lull  power  and  authority  to  the 
Tribunes,  which  had  been  taken  from  them  by  the  Cornelian  law.*^ 


CHAPTER  XX\  11. 

LAWS    RKLATlNi^     lO    PUliLU:    (  ONSTlTrTIONS,    LAWS,    ANH' 

PRIVILEGES. 

UOirrENSLi  /.r.r,  the  author  Q.  Hortensins,  Dictator,  A.  467, 
ordaining,  that  whatever  was  enacted  by  the  commons  should  be  ob- 
served bv  the  whole  Roman  people;  whereas  the  nobility  had  been 
formerly  exempted  from  paying  obedience  to  the  decrees  of  the 

po[>ulacy.' 

Citcilia  Didia  /.e.r,  the  authors  Q.  Csecilius  Metellus  and  T.  Di- 
dius.  Consuls,  A.  6jj,  for  the  regulating  the  proceedings  in  enact- 
ing laws;  ordaining,  that  in  one  question  (itaa  rogationc)  but  one 
single  matter  should  be  proposed  to  the  people,  lest,  while  tliey  gave 
their  suiVra'-^e  in  one  word,  they  should  be  forced  to  assent  to  a  whole 
bill,  if  they  liked  the  greatest  part  of  it,  though  they  disliked  the 
rest ;  or  tJirow  out  a  bill  for  several  clauses  wiiich  they  did  not  ap- 
prove of.  though  perhaps  they  would  have  been  willing  to  pass  some 
part  of  it.     Recpiiring  also,  that,  before  any  law  was  preferred  at  the 

1^  A.  (iell  lib.  14.  chap.  ult.  '•  Pint,  in  Pomp.  Ascon.  vcr.  1.  et  ? 

'    Cic.  (le  Lci;.  hb.  .i   Carsar.  Comm.    Civ^ur  de  I5cll.  Civ.  lib.   1. 
de  Hell.  i;all.  lib.  Fior.  Pint.  &c.  '  Flor.  Kpit.  Liv.  lib.  11. 

)    I  attrciil.  hb.  2.  Ascon.  in  Cornel,  in 
ver.  1. 


Comitia,  it  should  be  exposed  to  the  public  view  three  market-days 
(trihui  nwifli/iisj  before-hand." 

P.  Manutius  makes  the  Cxcilian  and  Didian  two  distinct  laws; 
the  first  part  composing  the  former,  and  the  other  the  latter. 

Jftnia  lAriniu  Lex,  the  authors  I).  Junius  Silanus,  and  L.  Licinius 
Murxna,  Cousuls,  A.  691 ,  ordaining  that  such  as  did  not  observe  the 
former  law%  relating  to  the  publishing  the  draughts  of  new  bills  for 
three  niindin(£  should  incur  a  greater  penalty  than  the  said  law  en- 
joined. 

lAcinia  .TJjuliu  Lex,  the  authors  Licinius  and  .Ebutius,  Tribunes 
of  the  commons;  ordaining,  that  when  any  law  was  preferred  relat- 
ing to  any  charge  or  power,  not  only  the  person  who  brought  in  the 
bill,  but  likewise  his  colleagues  in  any  office  which  he  already  en- 
joyed, and  all  his  relations,  should  be  inca4)able  of  being  invested 
with  the  said  charge  or  power." 

Cornelia  Lex,  the  author  C.  Cornelius,  Tribune  of  the  commons, 
A.  686,  ordaining  that  no  person  should,  by  the  votes  of  the  senate, 
be  exempted  from  any  law,  (as  used  to  be  allowed  upon  extraordi- 
nary occasions)  unless  two  hundred  senators  were  present  in  the 
house;  and  that  no  person,  thus  excused  by  the  senate,  should  hin- 
der the  bill  of  his  exemption  from  being  carried  afterwards  to  the 
commons  for  their  approbation. p 

Jmpia  Labicna  Lex,  the  authors  T.  Ampius  and  T.  Labienus, 
Tribunes  of  the  commons,  A.  693,  conferring  an  honourable  privi- 
lege on  Pompey  the  Great,  that  at  the  Circensian  games  he  should 
wear  a  golden  crown,  and  be  habited  in  the  triumphal  robes;  and 
that  at  the  stage  plays  he  should  have  the  liberty  of  wearing  the 
Praetexta,  and  a  golden  crown. '» 

^  \  (;(•!:.  I. i>.  15  -  ..  .27  Ci^  Philip  °  Ci  in  Orat  2  contra  Rull  et  in 
.5.      o  U  ii.o,        \iti     Epist.  9.  li   .  1.    OiMt.  ;.ro  Don.o  s  a 

"C      Pnil!|.   3.  al  Alt    Kpist.  5.  lib.     P     .  •  'j.-.  >i»  Ca  n.  !. 
2   Kpist.  U.  lib.  ^r.  'i  Veil.  Paierc  lib.  2. 


mmi 


172 


OF    THE    CIVIL    GOVERNMENT 


OF  THE  ROMANS. 


173 


» 


CHAPTER  XXVIIl. 

LAWS  RELATING  TO  THE  I»HOV  INCES.  AND  THE  GOVERNORS  Ui 

THEM. 

SEMPRONM  /.ex,  the  author  C.  Sempronius  Gracchus,  Tri- 
bune of  the  commons,  A.  630,  ordaining,  that  before  the  annual 
Comitia  for  choosin*;  Consuls,  the  senate  should,  at  their  pleasure, 
determine  the  particular  consular  provinces  which  the  new  Consuls, 
when  desi«i;ned,  should  divide  by  lot.  As  also,  that  whereas  here- 
tofore the  Tribunes  had  been  allowed  the  privilege  of  interposing 
against  a  decree  of  Senate,  they  should  be  deprived  of  that  liberty 
for  the  future" 

Corn f /ill  Lex,  the  author  L.  Cornelius  Sylla,  Dictator,  A.  673,  or- 
daining, that  whoever  was  sent  with  any  command  into  a  province, 
should  hold  that  command  until  he  returned  to  Rome;  whereas 
heretofore,  their  office  was  to  continue  no  longer  than  a  set  time  ; 
upon  the  expiration  of  which,  if  no  successor  was  sent  in  their  room, 
they  were  put  to  the  trouble  and  inconvenience  of  getting  a  new 
commission  from  the  Senate. 

It  was  a  clause  in  this  law,  that  every  governor  of  a  province, 
when  another  was  sent  to  succeed  him,  should  have  thirty  days  al- 
lowed him  in  order  to  his  removal." 

Julia  Lex  prima,  the  author  C.  Julius  Caesar,  Consul  with  M. 
Calpurnius  Bibulus,  A.  691, comprised  under  several  heads;  as  that 
Achaia,  Thessaly,  and  all  Greece,  should  be  entirely  free  ;  and  that 
the  Roman  magistrates  should  sit  as  judge  in  those  provinces:'  That 
the  towns  and  villages  through  which  the  Roman  magistrates  pass 
towards  the  provinces,  should  be  obliged  to  supply  them  and  their 
retinue  with  hay,  and  other  conveniences,  on  the  road:"  That  the 
o-overnors,  when  their  office  was  expired,  should  leave  a  scheme  of 
their  accounts  in  two  cities  of  their  provinces,  and,  at  their  arrival 
at  Rome,  should  deliver  in  a  copy  of  the  said  accounts  at  the  public 
treasury:^  That  the  governors  of  provinces  should  upon  no  account 
accept  of  a  golden  coronet,  unless  a  triumph  had  been  decreed  them 
by  the  Senate  :^    That  no  chief  commander  should  go  beyond  the 

■  Cic.pro  Domo  sua,  in  Vatin.  de  Provinciis  Consul  SuUust.  in  Bel).  Jugurlh. 
«  Cic   Ejiist  9.  ;ul  Lenlul.  el  lib.  3.  ad  Attic.  Epist.  6. 

•  Cic.  pro  Domo,  in  Pisonem,  et  de  Frovinc.  Consul. 

*  Cicero  in  Pisonem  '  Ibid.  ^  Ibid. 


t 


> 


bounds  of  his  province,  or  enter  on  any  other  dominions,  or  lead  the 
armv  out,  or  engage  in  any  war,  without  the  express  order  ol  the 
Senate  or  people.* 

Julia  Lex  seainda,  the  author  the  same  Julius  Cxsar,  in  his  dic- 
tatorship, ordaining  that  no  Praetorian  province  should  be  held  above 
a  year,  and  no  consular  province  more  than  two  years. 

Cloilia  Lex,  the  author  P.  Clodius,  Tribune  of  the  commons,  A. 
695,  ordaining,  that  all  Syria,  Babylon,  and  Persia,  should  be  com- 
mitted to  Gabinius  the  Consul  ;  and  Macedon,  Achaia,  Thessaly, 
Greece,  and  Boeotia,  to  his  colleague  Piso,  with  the  proconsular 
power;  and  that  a  sum  should  be  paid  them  out  of  the  treasury,  to 
defray  the  charges  of  their  march  thither  with  an  army.^ 

Vatinia  Lex,  the  author  P.  Vatinius,  Tribune  of  the  commons,  A. 
694.  ordaining  that  the  command  of  all  Gallia  Cisalpina  and  Illyri- 
cum,  should  be  conferred  on  Caesar  for  five  years  together,  without 
a  decree  of  Senate,  and  without  the  formality  of  casting  lots;  that 
the  particular  persons  mentioned  in  the  bill  should  go  with  him,  in 
the  (|uality  of  Legati,  without  the  deputation  of  the  Senate  :  That 
the  army  to  be  sent  with  him  to  be  paid  out  of  the  treasury;  and 
that  he  should  transplant  a  colony  into  the  town  of  Novocomum  in 

Gallia.'* 

Cloilia  Lex  de  Cypro,  the  author  P.  Clodius,  Tribune  of  the  com- 
mons,  A.  695,  ordaining,  that  the  island  Cyprus  should  be  reduced 
into  a  Roman  province :  That  Ptolemy  king  of  Cyprus  should  be  pub- 
licly exposed  to  sale,  habited  in  all  legal  ornaments,  and  his  goods 
ill  like  maner  sold  bv  auction  :  That  M.  Cato  should  be  sent  with 
the  Praetorian  power  into  Cyprus,  to  take  care  af  the  selling  the 
king's  effects,  and  conveying  the  money  to  Rome." 

Trebonia  Lex,  the  author  L.  Trebonius,  Tribune  of  the  commons, 
A.  698,  decreeing  the  chief  command  in  Gallia  to  Caesar,  five  years 
longer  than  had  been  ordered  by  the  Vatinian  law  ;  and  so  depriving 
the  Senate  of  the  power  of  recalling  him  and  substituting  another 
general  in  his  room.'^ 

Titia  Lex,  barely  mentioned  by  Cicero,"  and  not  explained  by 
Manutius  or  Rosinus.  The  purport  of  it  seems  to  have  been,  that 
the  provincial  Quaestors  should  take  their  places  by  lot,  in  the  same 
manner  as  the  Consuls  and  Praetors ;  as  may  be  gathered  from  the 
scope  of  the  passage  in  which  we  find  it. 

"  Ci'-.inPison  el  pro  Posthum.  ^  Cirtro,  pro  Doino,  pro  Scxtio,  d6 

y  Cic-ro,  Pl»ilip.  3  Provin  Consular. 

'  Cicf ro,  pro  Uomo,  el  pro  Sfxtio.         '  Cicero,  lib.  «,  9.  10.  Kpi?t.  ad  Attic 

*  Cirtio,  •!•  Va'inmm,  et  pro  Balbo,  Florus,  Kp,'    Liv.  lib.  105. 
Sueton.  in  Julio.  Sallust.  in  Jugurth.  ^  U\  Oiu\  pro  Muracna. 

^4 


174 


OF  THE  CIVIL   GOVERNMLNT 


OF  THE   KOMANS. 


175 


CHAPTER  XX  1\. 

u:(;ks  a(;ijaim;i:  oh  \.\\\>  hfi  atinc;  to  the  dimsion  of  lands 

AMONG   TUV:  PKOI'Li:. 

C.QSSIA  /  c,v,  the  author  Sp.  Cassius  Viscellinus,  Consul  with 
Proculus  Virtrinius,  A.  267,  onliiining,  that  the  land  taken  from  the 
Hernici  should  be  divided  half  amon^^  the  Latins,  and  hall  among 
the  Roman  commons.     This  law  did  not  hold. 

lAcinia  Lex,  the  author  C.  Licinius  Stolo,  Tribune  of  the  com- 
mons, A.  2rr,  ordaininj^  that  no  person  should  possess  above  five 
hundred  acres  of  land  ;  or  keep  more  than  an  hundred  head  of  «;rea<, 
or  live  hui\dred  head  of  small  cattle/  / 

F/arninia  leXy  the  author  C.  Flaminius,  Tribune  of  the  commons, 
A.  525,  ordaining  that  Picenum,  a  part  of  Gallia,  whence  the  So- 
nones  had  been  expelled,  should  be  divided  among  the  Roman  sol- 
diers.' 

Scnipronia  I. cjr  prima,  the  author  T.  Sempronius  Gracchus,  Tri- 
bune of  the  commons,  A.  020,  confirming  the  Licinian  law,  and  re- 
quiring all  persons  who  held  more  land  than  that  law  allowetl,  imme- 
diately to  resign  it  into  the  commons,  to  be  divided  among  the 
poorer  citizens,  constituting  three  officers  to  take  care  of  the  busi- 
ness.*' 

This  law  being  levelled  directly  against  the  interest  of  the  richer 
men  of  the  citv,  who  had  by  degrees  contrived  to  engross  almost 
all  the  land  to  themselves,  after  great  heats  and  tumults,  at  last 
cost  the  author  his  life. 

Sempronia  Lex  altera,  preferred  by  the  same  person,  upon  the 
death  of  kinj:;  Attains,  who  left  the  Roman  state  his  heir:  It  ordain- 
ed, that  all  readv  mone>  found  in  the  kin^-'s  treasury  should  be  be- 
stowed  on  the  poorer  citizens,  to  supply  them  with  instruments  and 
other  conveniences  required  for  agriculture;  and  that  the  king's 
lands  should  be  farmed  at  an  annual  rent  by  the  Censors  ;  which 
rent  should  be  divided  among  the  people.' 

Thnria  Lex,  the  author  Sp.  Thorius,  Tribun-  of  the  commons,  or- 
daining, that  no  person  shall  pay  any  rent  to  the  people  of  the  lands 


i 


•^ 


which  he  possessed;  and  regulating  the  affair  of  grazing  and  pas- 
ture. Tw(»  large  fragments  of  this  law,  which  was  of  a  great  length, 
are  copied  from  two  old  brazen  tablets,  by  Sigonius. 

Cornelia  Lex,  the  author  L.  Cornelius  Sylla,  Dictator,  and  Con- 
sul Nv  ilh  Q.  Metellus,  A.  673,  ordaining,  that  the  lands  of  proscribed 
persons  should  be  common.  This  is  chielly  to  be  understood  of  the 
lands  in  Tuscany,  about  Volaterrac  and  FesuL.,  which  Sylla divided 
amongst  his  soldiers.' 

Scrvilia  Lex,  the  author  P.  Servilius  Rullus,  Tribune  of  the  com- 
mons, A.  61)0,  in  the  consulship  of  Cicero  and  Antony,  containing 
many  particulars  about  selling  several  houses,  fields,  t|^*c.  that  belong- 
ed to  the  public,  for  the  purchasing  land  in  other  parts  of  Italy; 
about  creating  ten  men  to  be  supervisors  of  tiie  business,  and  abun- 
dance of  other  heads,  several  of  which  are  repeated  by  Cicero  in 
iiis  three  orations  extant  against  this  law,  by  wliich  he  hindered  it 
from  passing. 

Flavia  Lex,  the  author  L.  Flavius,  Tribune  of  the  commons,  A. 
693,  about  dividing  a  sutticient  quantity  of  land  among  Pompey's 
soldiers  and  the  commons. ' 

Julia  Lex,  the  author  Julius  Caesar,  Consul  with  Bibulus,  A.  691, 
ordaining,  that  all  the  land  in  Campania,  which  used  formerly  to  be 
farmed  at  a  set  rent  of  the  state,  should  be  divided  among  the  com- 
mons; as  also,  that  all  members  of  the  Senate  should  swear  to  con- 
firm this  law,  and  to  defend  it  against  all  opposers.     Cicero  calls 

this  Lex  Campania. 

Mamilia  Lex,  the  author  C.  Mamilius,  Tribune  of  the  commons, 
in  the  time  of  the  Jugurthan  war;  ordaining,  that  in  the  bounds  of 
the  lands,  there  should  be  left  five  or  six  feet  of  ground,  which  no 
person  should  convert  to  his  private  use,  and  that  commissioners 
should  be  appointed  to  regulate  this  aftair.  From  this  law  de  Li- 
mitibus,  the  author  took  the  surname  of  Limentanus,  as  he  is  called 
by  Sallust." 


•  Cic  df  Oral,  lib  2  et  in  Biuto. 
^  De  Anliq.  Jiir.  lial   lib    2. 
^   Cic.  in  Kwll'in),  j>ro  Koscio  ;  Sal- 
ttHii.  in  Catilin. 

«»  Cicero  ud  Altic.  lib.  1. 


»  Velleius  Paterc.  lib.  2.  Pint,  in 
Pomp.  Cxs.  ft  C  t.  Utioens.  ad  AltiC. 
lib.  2      |>i>'.  18. 

o  Ciceru,  lib   2.  de  Leg. 

9  In  Bell.  Jugurth. 


f 


«  Liv.  li  K  2.  Val'.  I-.  Max.  lib.  5.  rliap.  8, 

i  L'v.  ),b  6   K   i>iun.  \   Gcllius.  Piin.  Patcrcul.  Plutarch,  8iC. 

8  Cic  I  •  Ca  .  M  joi  ^  Cic.  pro  Strxtio,  Plot.  &c. 

*   Cic.  Verr.  5.  Pint.  &c. 


m 


17« 


OF    THE    CIVIT.    GOVFRN'MKN"' 


OF    THE    ROMANS. 


/  i 


vnwviM  \\\ 


l,A\>S   UKLAIIN^;    ro  COUN. 


SE  MP  no  MA  Lrj\  \\w  author  ('.  S^Mnpronius  Gracchus  (not  T. 
Soiupromus  (iiacchus,  as  R<»sinus  has  it^  onlainiiii;,  that  a  certain 
r|uaiititv  of  corn  shouid  1h'  (listril)utcil  cvory  month  anioiij;!;  the  com- 
mons, so  muili  to  overv  nmn ;  lor  which  they  were  only  to  pay  the 
smiill  consideration  ol  a  semissis  and  a  triens.' 

Ternitin  Ca.s.sia  Lex,  the  authors  M.  Terentius  Varro  Lucullus 
an«l  V.  ('assius,(\)nsuls,  A.  G8(),  ordaininj^,  that  the  same  set  price 
sliould  be  ^iveii  lor  all  com  bought  up  in  the  provinces,  to  hinder 
the  exactions  of  the  Quxstors.' 

C/oilia  Ii.i\  the  author  P.  Clodius,  Tribune  of  the  commons,  A. 
69j,ordainin«;,  that  tho>e  «|uaritities  of  corn,  which  were  lorn»erly 
sold  to  the  poor  people  at  six  asses  and  a  triens  the  bushel,  should 
be  distributeil  amonu;  tliem  gratis. 

Iheronica  Lex,  the  author  lliero,  tyrant  of  Sicily,  rej^ulating  the 
aftair  between  the  farmers  and  the  decumani  (or  gatherers  of  tiie 
corn-lax,  which,  because  it  consisted  of  a  tenth  part,  they  called 
decuniiC)  (udaiui.ig  tue  quantity  of  corn,  the  price,  and  the  time  oi 
rejetvm'^  it;  wjuch,  bu-  the  ju.-.tice  of  it,  the  itomans  still  continu 
ed  in  force,  after  they  had  possessed  themselves  of  that  island/ 


CllAPTEU  XXXI. 

LAWS    Vi)n  THK   Ur:(iL'LATU)NS  OF  EXPENSES. 

OECHLl  Lex,  the  author  C.  Orchius,  Tribune  of  the  common?, 
A.  3t3t>,  defining  the  number  of  guests  which  were  allowed  lo  be 
present  at  any  entertainment, " 

Fannia  Lex,  the  author  C.  Fannius,  Consul,  A.  588,  ordaining, 
that  upon  the  higher  festivals,  no  person  should  expend  more  than  ar 

<\  Flor.Epit.  Liv    lib.  60.     Yell.  Pat.  lib-  2,  5tc. 

r   Cic.  in  Vcrrem,  3  '   Cicero,  in  Verr.  4. 

«   Cic.  pro  Sextio,  in  Pison.  8cc.  '  Macrobii  Saturn,  lib.  2.  chap.  14 


huntlred  assps  in  a  day;  or  ten  other  days  in  every  month,  thirty 
assMH  ;  and  at  all  other  times,  ten.^ 

hidia  Lex,  enacted  about  eighteen  years  after  the  former, ordain- 
iiij:,  that  the  laws  for  re^rulatiiig  expenses  should  reach  all  the  Ita- 
lians, as  well  as  the  inhabitants  of  Rome;  and  that  n<.t  only  the 
masters  of  extravajrant  treats,  but  the  guests  too,  should  incur  a 
penalty  for  their  otfence.*' 

Lex  Licinia,  the  author  P.  fjcinius  Crassus  the  rich,  agreeing  in 
most  particulars  with  the  Fannian  law  ;  and  farther  prescribing,  that 
on  the  Kalends,  Nones,  and  Xundia^r,  thirty  asses  should  be  the 
most  that  was  spent  at  any  table  ;  and  that  on  ordinary  days,  which 
were  not  paiiicularly  excepted,  there  should  be  spent  only  three 
pounds  of  dry  flesh,  and  one  pound  of  salt  meat;  but  allowing  as 
much  as  every  body  pleased  of  any  fruits  of  the  ground.* 

Cornelia  Lex,  the  author  I^.  Cornelius  Sylla,  enacted,  not  so  much 
for  the  retrenching  of  extravagant  treats,  as  for  the  lowering  the 
price  of  provisions.' 

jj^jniiia  Lex,  the  author  M.  viLmilius  Lepidus,  Consul,  about  A. 
675,  respecting  the  several  sorts  of  meats  in  use  at  that  time,  and 
stating  the  just  quantities  allowable  of  every  kind.' 

A/ifia  Lex,  the  author  Antius  Restio  ;  a  farther  essay  toward  the 
suppressing  of  luxury,  the  particulars  of  which  we  are  not  acquainted 
with.  But  Macrobius  gives  us  this  remarkable  story  of  the  author, 
that,  finding  his  constitution  to  be  of  very  little  force,  by  reason  of 
the  great  head  that  prodigality  and  extravagance  had  gained  in  the 
city,  he  never  afterwards  supped  abroad  as  long  as  he  lived,  for  fear 
he  should  be  forced  to  be  a  witness  of  the  contempt  of  his  own  in- 
junctions, without  being  in  a  condition  to  punish  it.* 

Ji///aLcj',preferredinthe  time  of  Augustus,  allowing  two  hundred 

sestertii  for  the  provisions  on  the  diea  profesli,  three  hundred  on  the 
common  festivals  in  the  kalendar,  and  a  thousand  at  marriage -feasts, 
and  such  extraordinary  entertainments." 

A.  Gellius  farther  adds,  that  he  finds  in  an  old  author  an  edict, 
either  of  Augustus  or  Tiberius,  (he  is  uncertain  which,)  raising  the 
allowance  according  to  the  difference  of  the  festivals,  from  three 
hun<lred  to  two  thousand  sestertii. "= 

Hither  may  be  referred  the  Lex  Oppia, i\\c  author  C.  Oppius,  Tri- 
bune of  the  commons,  A.  540.  in  the  heat  of  the  second  Punic  war, 


'  Macrobii  Saturn,  et  A  Gell   lib.  2,  ch^p.  24. 
«  Caro  arid'i  opponilur  iaisamento.     Casauboii,  in  A.  Gell. 
Bib.  C.  C.  C.  OxoM. 

V   A.G.ll.  hb    2.  chap.  24.  'Ibid. 

*  Macrob.  et  A.  Gell.  ''A   Gell  Ib-i. 


^^  Ibid. 
Notx  MSS 


m 


17S 


Of   THE   CIVIL   GOVERNMENT 


ordaiiiiii»i;,  that  no  woman  should  Uave  abovt-  half  an  ounce  of  }j;old, 
wcai-  a  |iarty-colourcd  gaiinent,  or  be  earned  m  a  cliaiioi  m  any 
city,  It)  v:i,  or  to  any  place  witliin  a  mile  a  distance,  unless  upon 
the  account  of  cidebrating  some  sacred  solemnity.'* 


1 


OF  THE    ROMANS. 


179 


cules's  Pillars,  and  in  the  maratimc  provinces  as  far  as  400  stadia 
fr..m  the  sea,  he  should  be  empowered  to  command  kings,  governors, 
and  states,  to  supply  him  with  all  necessaries  in  the  expedition.' 

MiinUia  Lej\  the  author  C.  Manilius,  Tribune  of  the  commons, 
A.  ()87,  ordaining,  that  all  the  forces  of  Lucullus,  and  the  province 
under  his  jrovernment,  should  be  given  to  Pompey  ;  togetlier  with 
Biininla,  which  was  under  the  command  of  Glabrio  ;  and  that  he 
shjiuld  forthwith  make  war  upon  Mithridates;  retaining  still  the 
same  naval  forces,  and  the  sovereignty  of  the  seas,  as  before.J 


c u\ptp:r  xxxii 


LAWS    P.ELATINC;    TO    MARTIAL    AFFAIRS. 

SJICRATjI  Lex  MilUarh,  tlie  author,  probably,  M.  Valerius, 
Corvus,  Dictator,  A.  411,  ordaining,  that  no  soldier's  name  which 
had  been  entered  in  the  muster-roll,  should  be  struck  out,Uiileas  b) 
the  party's  consent;  and  that  no  person  who  had  been  militar\ 
Tribune  should  execute  the  oilice  ot  Dactor  ordinion. 

Sempronia  J.ex,  t!»e  author  C.  Sempronius  Gracchus,  Tribune  ol 
the  commons,  A.  630,  ordaining,  that  the  soldiers  should  receive 
their  clothes  gratis  at  the  public  charge,  without  any  diminution  ot 
their  ordinary  pay  ;  and  that  none  should  be  obliged  to  serve  m  the 
armv,  who  was  not  full  seventeen  years  old. 

Maria  Porcia  Lex,  the  authors  1..  Marius  and  Porcius  Cato,  Tri- 
bunes of  the  commons,  A.  GDI,  ordaining,  that  a  penalty  should  be 
inilicted  on  such  commanders  as  writ  falsely  to  the  senate  about  the 
number  of  the  slain  on  the  enemy's  side,  and  of  their  own  party  ;  and 
that  they  should  be  obliged,  when  they  first  entered  the  city,  to  take 
a  solemn  oath  before  the  Quxstors,  that  the  number  which  they  re- 
turned was  true,  according  to  the  best  computation. 

Sidpicia  Lex,  the  author  P.  Sulpicius,  Tribune  of  the  commons, 
A.  665,  ordaining,  that  the  chief  command  in  the  Milhridatic  war 
which  was  then  enjoyed  by  L.  J^ylla,  should  be  taken  from  him  and 
conferred  on  C.  Marius." 

Gabinia  Lex,  the  author  A.  Gabinius,  Tribune  of  the  commons,  A, 
685,  ordaining,  that  a  commission  should  be  granted  to  Cn.  Pompey, 
for  the  management  of  the  war  against  the  pirates  for  three  years, 
with  this  particular  clause,  that  upon  all  the  sea  on  this  side  iier- 


U    ).   I 


«<  Liv  lib.  34.  Tac.  Ann.  3.  *  Liv  .o     i        >i 

•    Plui   xnV   (;riccl.  ^  Val,  . .  M..X.  nb.  2.  chap.  8. 

h  Vell.rattrc.iib.2.     Flor.  Epil.  77.    HuurcU.  in  Sylia  et  Muno,  &c. 


CHAPTER  XXXIll. 

DE  TUTELIS,  OR  LAWS   CONCERNING  WARDSHIPS. 

JiTITJA  Lex,  the  author  and  time  unknown,  prescribing,  that 
the  Prxtor,  and  the  major  part  of  the  Tribunes,  should  appoint 
«-uardians  to  all  such  minors  to  whom  none  had  been  otherwise  as- 

signed.'' 

The  emperor  Claudius  seems  to  have  abrogated  this  law,  when, 
as  Suetonius  informs  us,  he  ordered,  that  the  assignment  of  guar- 
dians should  be  in  the  power  of  the  Consuls.' 

LATtorla  Lex,  ordaining,  that  such  persons  as  were  distracted,  or 
prodigally  squandered  away  their  estates,  should  be  committed  to 
the  care  of  some  proper  persons,  for  the  security  of  themselves  and 
their  possessions  ;  and  that  whoever  was  convicted  of  defrauding  any 
ill  those  circumstances,  should  be  deemed  guilty  of  a  high  misde- 
meanour.™ 


'  Asconiiis  in  Cornelian.  Veil  Paterc.  lib.  2.  Plutarch  in  Pomp. 
Lege  M milirH,  ct  post  reclitum  in  Senat. 

.'   Cicero  de  Lege  Manilia.  Piutarch   in  Pomp.  Flor.  Epitom.  100, 
k  Liv.  III).  39  '  Sueton.  in  Claud,  rhap. '23. 

^  Cicero  (\f^  Oflic.  lib  3  ;  de  Nat,  Deer,  lib.  3. 


Cicero  de 


lao 


uJt    'LUL    CIVIL    OOVLRNiMLM 


4 


OF    THE    ROMANS. 


181 


CHAPTER  \XXIV. 

LAWS   CONCERNING  WILLS,    HEIRS,  AND   LEGACIES. 

FUHlJl  LtXy  the  author  C.  Furius,  Tribune  of  the  commons,  or- 
daining, that  no  person  should  give,  by  way  of  legacy,  above  a  thous- 
and asses,  unless  to  the  relations  of  the  master,  who  manumized 
him,  and  to  some  other  parties  there  excepted." 

Voconia  I  ex,  the  author  Q.  Voconius  Saxa,  Tribune  of  the  com- 
mons, A.  584,  ordaining,  that  no  woman  should  be  left  heiress  to 
an  estate  ;  that  no  Cemus  should,  by  his  will,  give  above  a  fourth 
part  of  what  he  was  worth  to  a  woman.  This  seems  to  have  been 
enacted,  to  prevent  the  decay  and  extinction  of  noble  families.- 

Hy  the  word  Census  is  meant  any  rich  person,  who  was  rated 
hii^h  in  the  Censor's  Books. 


ClIAPTKR  XXXV. 

LAWS  CONCERNING    MONEY,  USURY,   ScC. 

SEMPROyi-^  l^ei\  tHe  author  M.  Sempronius,  Tribune  of  the 
commons,  A.  oGO,  ordaining,  that,  in  lending  money  to  the  allies  of 
Rome  and  the  Latines,  the  tenor  of  the  Roman  laws  should  be  still 
observed,  as  well  as  among  the  citizens.'' 

Valeria  Lex,  the  author  Valerius  Flaccus,  consul  with  L.  Corne- 
lius Cinna,  ordaining  (to  oblige  the  poorer  part  of  the  city)  that  all 
creditors  should  discharge  their  debtors  upon  the  receipt  of  a  fourth 
part  of  the  whole  sum.  This  law,  as  most  unreasonable,  is  censur- 
ed by  Paterculus. ' 

Gahinia  Lex,  the  author  Aulus  Gabinius,  Tribune  of  the  com- 
mons, A.  685,  onlaining  tliat  no  action  should  be  granted  for  the  re- 
roverv  of  any  money  taken  up,  versura  facta ,  i,  e,  first  borrowed  for  a 

»  Cicero,  pro  T.albo.  P  Liv.  lib.  35.  C-cero,  de  Offic.  C 

'^  Cicero,  in  Ycrr.  3.  de  Senect.  dc  Finib.    ^  Lib.  2.  chap.  23. 


small  use,  and  then  lent  out  again  upon  a  greater ;  which  practice 
was  highly  unreasonable. 

Claudia  Lex,  the  author  Claudius  Cxsar;  commanding,  that  no 
usurer  should  lend  money  to  any  person  in  his  non-age,  to  be  paid 
after  the  death  of  his  parents.* 

Vespasian  added  a  great  strength  to  this  law,  when  he  ordained, 
that  those  usurers  who  lent  money  to  any  Jiiius  familife,  or  son  un- 
der his  father's  tuition,  should  have  no  right  ever  to  clai^  it  again, 
not  even  after  the  death  of  his  parents.^ 


CHAPTER  XXXVI. 


LAWS    CONCERNING    THE    JUDGES. 


SEMPRONLi  Lex,  the  author  C.  Sempronius  Gracchus,  Tri- 
bune of  the  commons,  A.  630,  ordaining,  that  the  right  of  judging, 
which  had  been  assigned  to  the  Senatorian  order  by  Romulus,  should 
be  transferred  from  them  to  the  equites,'' 

ServUia  Lex,  the  author  Q.  Servilius  Coepio,  Consul  with  C.  Ati- 
lius  Serranus,  A.  647,  abrogating  in  part  the  former  law,  and  com- 
manding that  the  privilege  there  mentioned  should  be  divided  be- 
tween both  orders  of  knights  and  senators.^ 

Plutarch  and  Florus  make  C.  Sempronius  Gracchus  to  have  ap- 
pointed 300  senators,  and  600  equitcs,  for  the  management  of  judg- 
ments ;  but  this  seems  rather  to  belong  to  the  Servilian  law,  if  not 
totally  a  mistake.*     This  law  was  soon  after  repealed. 

Livia  Lex,  the  author  M.  Livius  Drusus,  Tribune  of  the  com- 
mons, A.  662,  ordaining  that  the  judiciary  power  should  be  seated 
in  the  hands  of  an  equal  number  of  senators  and  knights.^ 

But  this  among  other  constitutions  of  that  author,  was  abrogated 
:he  very  same  year,  under  pretence  of  being  made  inauspiciously. 

PlaiUia  Lex,  the  author  M.  Plautius  Silvanus,  Tribune  of  the  com- 
mons, A.  664,  ordaining  that  every  tribe  should  chuse  out  of  their 

I  C'Crro  ad  Altlc.  lib,  5.  Epist.  ult   lib   6.  Kpist  2. 

5  Tacit   Aniial   11.  *  Su  to  .  in  Vesp   chap   11. 

'  As<  onius  in  Divin      Tacit   Ann.  12      VII    F  terr    I  l»    ? 

''  Cicero  (le  Art.  Kliet.  lib.  2  de  Oratore,  in  Bruto;  ia  Orat.  pro  .Scauro. 

■''Cicero  de  Orator  3      Flor.  Kpii.  7i. 

'  Ascouius  in  Cornelian. 


182 


OF    THi::    CIVIL    GOVERNMlrNT 


OF    THE    ROMANS. 


183 


own  body  nrtecn  pers«ms  to  serve  as  judges  every  year;  by  this 
means  making  the  honour  common  to  all  the  three  orders,  accordi.ig 
as  the  votes  carried  it  in  every  tribe.y  ^ 

Cornelia  Lex,  the  author  L.  Cornelius  Sylla,  Dictator,  A.  67o, 
takin-  away  the  right  of  judging  entirely  from  the  knights,  and  re- 
storing it  Tully  to  tiie  senators.' 

^lurclia  Lex.  the  author  L.  Aurelius  Cotta,  Prsetor,  A.  6o3.  or- 
dainin-,  that  the  Senatorian  and  Eciuestrian  orders,  together  with 
the  Tribuni  .Erarii,  should  share  the  judicial  power  between  them ." 

Pompclu  Lex,  the  author  Pompey  the  Great,  Consul  with  Cras- 
sus.  A.  098,  ordaining,  that  the  judges  should  be  chosen  otherwise 
than  foruuMlv,  out  ol  the  richest  m  every  century;  yet  not  with- 
standing,  should  be  confined  to  the  persons  mentioned  in  the  Aure- 

iian  law.  .  ,  ., 

Julia  l.ex,  the  author  Julius  Cxsar,  confirm.ng  the  ^l--;";';-'"*, 

crivilc'e  to  the  senators  and  kniglits,  but  exclud.ug  the   7 nbum 

^iwnuus  sets  this  law  before  that  of  Pompey  ;  but  it  is  very  plain 

that  it  was  made  posterior  to  it.  ,     .  ,    r  r      r^ 

Antonia  Lex,  the  author  M.  Antony,  Consul  with  Julius  Caesar 
A.  709,  ordaiiung,  that  a  third  Decury  of  Judges  should  be  added 
to  the  two  former,  to  be  chosen  out  of  the  centurions.-* 


CHAPTKIl  XXXVIl. 

LAWS    RELATING    TO    JUDGMENTS. 

rOMPEL^  Lex,  the  author  Pompey  the  Great,  sole  Consul,  A. 
701,  forbidding  the  use  of  the  laudatores  in  trials.^ 

Mcmmia  Lex,  ordaining,  that  no  person's  name  should  be  re- 
ceived into  the  roll  of  criminals,  who  was  absent  upon  the  public 
account.^ 


y  Cicero,  pro  Cornel,  ct  ad  Att.  A. 

^  Flor  Kpitom.  69.  Ascon.  in  Divinat. 

»  Cic<ro,  in  Verrn\is.  \f\\.  lib.  2. 

^  Suet,  in  Julio,  cliap  41. 

e  Plutarch,  .n  Fomp,  et  in  Ctone  Uticens.^ 

*  Cicero,  in  Vatin.     Val.  Max.  lib.  3.  chap.  7. 


*»  Cicero  in  Pisonrm. 
<'  Cicero,  in  Flnlip  1.  and  5. 
Valer.  Mas.  lib  6.  chap.  3. 


i 

4  9 


Remmia  Lex,  ordaining,  that  persons  convicted  of  calumny  should 

be  stigmatized . 

Both  these  laws  go  under  the  name  of  Meimnix,  and  sometimes 
of  y^cm/mce;  the  distinction  here  observed  is  owing  to  P.  Manu- 

tius. 

Cincia  Lex,  the  author  M.  Cincius,  Tribune  of  the  commons,  A. 
549,  forbidding  any  person  to  accept  of  a  gift  upon  account  of  judg- 
ing a  cause.  This  is  commonly  called  Lex  Muneralh^ 


CHAPTER  XXXVlil. 


LAWS   RELATING  TO   CRIMES. 


THE  crimes  or  actions,  that  tended  to  the  prejudice  of  tlie  state, 
have  been  already  reckoned  up,  and  briefly  explained.  The  laws  on 
this  subject  are  very  numerous,  and,  by  reason  of  their  gieat  useful- 
ness, have  been  preserved  at  large  in  the  labours  of  the  Civilians, 
with  the  particular  heads  of  which  they  consisted.  It  will  be  suffi- 
cient to  the  present  design,  to  mention  such  as  are  hinted  at  in  the 
ordinary  classics,  and  to  speak  of  those  only  in  general. 

De  3Iaj estate, 

Gabinia  Lex,  already  described  among  the  laws  relating  to  as- 
semblies. 

Apuleia  Ixx,  the  author  L.  Apuleius,  Tribune  of  the  commons, 
A.  652.  It  seems  to  have  been  enacted  for  the  restraint  of  public 
force  and  sedition  in  the  city.  Sigonius  thinks,  that  it  was  this  law 
which  made  the  question  de  majestaie  perpetual. 

Varia  Lex,  the  author  L.  Varius,  Tribune  of  the  commons,  A. 
602,  ordaining  that  all  such  persons  should  be  brought  to  a  public 
trial  who  had  any  way  encouraged  or  assisted  the  confederates  in 
^e  late  war  against  Rome.' 

Cornelia  Lex,  the  author  L.  Cornelius  Sylla,  Dictator,  A.  670, 

K  Cicero,  pro  Sexi   Roscio. 

h  I..V.  lib.  34      Tacit.  Ann.   14.     Cicero,  ad  Attic,  lib.  1.  de  Oruiore,  2.  de 

^encct. 
»  Cicero,  de  Orator,  lib  2  .-  ,     •      «, 

»  Cicero,  pro  Scauro,  pro  Cornel.     Tusculan,  2.  m  Bruto.  Valerius  Maximus, 

Hb.  8.  chap.  6 


184 


OF    THE    CIVIL    GOVERNMEXI 


OF    THE    ROMANS. 


185 


l| 


makinu;  it  treason  to  lend  an  army  out  of  a  province,  or  to  engage 
in  a  war  without  special  orders  ;  to  endeavour  the  in«;ratiatini«;  one's 
self  so  with  the  army  as  to  make  them  ready  to  serve  his  particular 
interest;  or  to  spare  or  ransom  a  commander  of  the  enemy  when 
taken  prisoner  ;  or  to  pardon  the  captains  of  robbers  and  pirates  ;  or 
for  a  Roman  citizen  to  reside  without  orders  at  a  foreign  court; 
and  assi;;ning  the  punishment  (Aaquteet  igrmintcnlictio  to  all  that 
should  ho  convicted  of  anv  of  these  crimes." 

Julia  Lex,  the  author  Julius  Caesar,  either  in  his  first  consulship, 
or  after  the  Pharsalian  victory,  ordaining  the  punishment  mentioned 
in  Sylla's  law ,  to  be  inflicted  on  all  that  were  found  guilty  de  ma- 
jentate;  whereas  Sylla  intended  it  only  for  the  particulars  which  he 
there  specifies.' 

Antnuia  L(\i\  the  author  Mark  Antony,  allow  ing  those  who  were 
( ondemned  de  rtiajesfate  an  appeal  to  the  pc(>ple  ;  which  before  was 
only  allowed  in  the  crime  which  they  called  perdueUio,  one  part  of 
the  crimvn  mujistatis,  of  the  most  heinous  nature,  w  hich  the  lawyers 
define,  IlostUi  animo  adversits  rtmpublicam  esse.  This  law  was  re- 
pealed by  Augustus.™ 

De  Jldulterio  ct  Pudici/ia. 
Julia  Lex,  tlie  author  Augustus  Caesar,  as  Suentonius  informs 
us.  Juvenal  mentions  this  law  in  his  second  Satire,  and  seems  to 
intimate,  that  it  was  afterwards  confirmed  and  put  in  full  force, 
by  the  emperor  Domitian ;  the  rigour  of  it  is  there  very  handsomely 
expressed : 


'Tjeges  rcvnciibat  attinfas. 


Onuubus,  atqut^ipsis  I'eneri  Mitrtiqite   timendas'^ 

Srafinia  Lex,  the  author  C.  Scatinius  Aricinus,  Tribune  of  the 
commons  ;  though  some  think  it  was  called  Lex  Scantinia,  from  one 
Scantinius,  Tribune  of  the  commons  ;  against  whom  it  was  put  in 
execution.  It  was  particularly  levelled  against  the  keepers  of  cata- 
mites, and  against  such  as  prostituted  themselves  for  this  vile  ser- 
vice.*' The  penality  enjoined  by  the. author,  was  only  pecuniary .; 
but  Augustus  Cxsar  made  it  afterwards  capital. '' 

De  sicariis  et  veneficis. 
Cornelia  Lex,  the  author  Cornelius  Sylla,  Dictator.    It  was  di 
rected  a^'-ainst  such  as  killed  another  person  with  weapons  or  poison, 


^  Cinero,  in  Pi-on  pro  Ciucnt.  S;c. 
'    Cicero,  Philip.  1. 
«^  P.  MuiMit.  lib.  lie  Legibus. 
n  In  Aug.  chap.  3i, 


«  Juv.  Sut.  2.  V.  30. 
p  Uuimil   lib.  4.  chap.  2.  lib.  7.  chap 
4.     Cictro,  Philip.  3.     Juv.  ^c. 
<i  Just.  Inslit.  lib.  4. 


\ 


or  tired  houses,  or  took  aw-ay  any  person's  life  by  false  accusation; 
with  several  other  heads. 

It  was  a  clause  in  this  law,  that  the  person  who  stood  accused  of 
the  crimes  therein  mentioned,  might  iiave  his  choice  of  letting  the 
jury  give  their  verdict  clam,  velpalam,  by  voices  or  by  tablets. >* 

De  Parricidis. 

The  old  law  which  prescribed  the  old  sort  of  punishment  proper 
to  tiiis  crime,  was  restored  and  confirmed  by  Pompey  the  Great, 
with  the  title  of  J^ex  Pompeia.^ 

Cornelia  Lex  Falsi. 

Sylla  the  Dictator,  as  he  appointed  a  proper  Praetor  to  make  in- 
quisition into  what  they  called  Crimen  falsi,  so  he  enacted  this  law 
as  the  rule  and  standard  in  such  judgment.'  It  takes  in  all  for«*-ers 
concealers,  interliners,  <^c.  of  wills;  counterfeits  of  writs  and 
edicts  ;  false  accusers,  and  corrupters  of  the  jury  ;  to<»-ether  with 
those  that  any  ways  debased  the  public  coin,  by  shaving  or  filin"- 
the  gold,  or  adulterating  the  silver,  or  publishing  any  new  pieces  of 
tin,  lead,  ^'c. ;  and  making  those  incur  the  same  penalty  (which  was 
aqtins  et  ignis  interdictio)  w^ho  voluntarily  connived  at  the  often''ers 
in  these  particulars. 

Leges  de  Vi, 

Plautia,  or  Plotia  Lex,  the  author  P.  Plautius,  Tribune  of  the 
commons,  A.  6r5,  against  those  that  attempted  any  force  against 
the  state  or  senate  ;  or  used  any  violence  to  tlie  magistrates,  or  ap- 
peared armed  in  public  upon  any  ill  design,  or  forcibly  expelled,  any 
person  from  his  lawful  possession.  The  punishment  assigned  to  the 
convicted  w^as  aquae  et  ignis  interdictio.'^ 

Clodia  Lex,  the  author  P.  Clodius,  Tribune  of  the   commons,  A. 
G95,  ordaining,  that  all  those  should  be  brought  to  theii-  trial  who 
had  executed  any  citizen  of  Rome  without  the  judgment  of  the  pen 
pie,  and  the  formality  of  a  trial. ^ 

The   author,  being  a  mortal  enemy  of  Cicero's,  levelled  this  law 
particularly  against  him  ;  who  in  the  time  of  the  Catilinarian  con- 
spiracy, for  the  greater  expedition  and  security,  having  taken  several 
of  ehe  chief  parties  concerned,  first  imprisoned  and  afterwards  exe- 
cuted  them,   only  upon  a  decree  of  the   senate.     Clodius  having 

Cic.  pro  CUient.  s  j,,st   Jnst.  lib.  4  et  alii, 

c  C.c  (le  N..t.  Deor.  lib.  3.     Suet,  in  .\ug.  chap.  3J 
»  Siu-K.ii.  Ill  Juhscliap  3.     Uiy   lib  39      Cic.  pro  Sc^xtio,  pro  Milone 
"  Veil.  Patcrc.  lib.  2.     Cic.  ad  Attic,  lib.  3.    Die.  lib.  38. 


ki 


186 


OF    THE    CIVIL    GOVERNMENT 


hiMilv  ingratiated  himself  with  the  people,  by  several  popular  laws, 
ea'sily  got  this  act  to  pass  ;  and  so  obliged  Cicero  to  go  into  exile. 

Pompeia  /.ex,  the  author  Poinpey  tlie  Great,  in  his  third  consul- 
ship, A.  701.  It  was  directed  especially  against  the  authors  of  the 
late  riot,  upon  the  account  of  Clodius  and  Milo  ;  in  which  one  of 
Iht'  Curix  had  been  set  on  fire,  and  the  palace  of  Lepidus  the  Inter- 
rex  assaulted  by  force.  This  law  introduced  a  much  shorter  form 
of  jad;:;ment  than  had  been  formerly  used,  ordaining,  tliat  the  first 
three  days  in  every  trial  should  be  spent  in  hearing  and  examining 
Avilnesses,  and  then  allowing  only  one  day  for  the  two  parties  to 
make  their  formal  accusation  ami  defence :  the  first  being  confined 
to  two  hours,  and  the  other  to  three.  Hence,  the  author  of  the  dia- 
lo;f;ue  concerning  famous  orators,  attributed  to  Quintilian  or  Taci- 
tus, observes,  that  Pompey  was  tlie  first  who  deprived  eloquence  of 
its  old  libertv,  and  confined  it  to  bounds  and  limits.'' 

Leges  dc  Jlmbitu, 

Fdhin  Lex,  proscribing  the  number  of  sectutoreH,  allowed  to  any 
candidate.''     Thi:^  did  not  pass. 

,^cUia  Calpimiia  I^e.x,  the  authors  M.  Acilius  Glabrio  and  C.  Cal- 
purnius  Piso,  Consuls,  A.  68G,  ordaining,  that,  besides  the  fine  im- 
posed, no  person  convicted  of  this  crime  should  bear  an  oftice,  or 
come  into  the  senate. > 

7"f/l!ia  Lex,  the  author  M.  TuUius  Cicero,  Consul  with  C.  Anto- 
iiiu^,  A.  690,  ordaining,  that  no  person,  for  two  years  before  he 
suetl  for  an  olficc,  should  exhibit  a  show  of  gladiators  to  the  people, 
unless  tlie  care  of  such  a  solemnity  had  been  left  to  him  by  will ; 
that  Senators,  convicted  of  the  crimen  ambitus,  should  suiler  aquie 
et  ia;ni8  interdktio  for  ten  years :  and  that  the  commons  should  in- 
cur a  severer  penalty  than  had  been  denounced  by  the  Calpurniaii 

law.'- 

Aufidia  Lex,  the  author  Aufidius  Lurco,  Tribune  of  the  commons, 
A.  69^2,  more  severe  than  that  of  Tully  ;  having  this  remarkable 
clause,  that  if  any  candidate  promised  money  to  the  Tribunes,  and 
did  not  pay  it,  he  should  be  excused;  but,  in  case  he  actually  gave 
it,  should   be   obliged  to  pay  to   eveiy  Tribe  a  yearly  fine  of  3000 

sestertii.' 

Lex  Licima  de  Sodalitiis,  the  author  M.  Licinius  Crassus,  Con- 
sul with  Cn.  Pompey,  A.  691,  appointed  a  greater  penalty  than  for- 
merly to  ottenders  of  this  kind."     By  sodalilia,  they  undersood  an 

w  Ascon  if!  Mjlon.     C  ic.  de  funb.  4  Cxs.  tie  ndl.     Civ.  lib.  3,  Stc. 

"  Ci«:.  pro  MiMa;ni4.  >   Cic.  prt)  Muraciia  pro  Cornel,  ^c. 

-  ('ic.  in  Varih.pro  Scxtio,  pro  Mmscna.     <^io.  1  37. 

»  Cic.  ad  AUic  lib.  1.  ep.  U.  **  Cic.  pro  Plane 


OF  THE  ROMANS. 


187 


unlawful  making  of  parties  at  elections ;  w  hich  was  interpreted  as  a 
sort  of  violence  ottered  to  the  freedom  of  the  people.  It  is  strange, 
that  this  sense  of  the  word  should  have  escaped  Cooper  and  Lit- 
tleton. 

Asconius  seems  to  imply,  that  the  i^odolitia  and  ambitus,  were 
two  different  crimes,  when  he  tells  us  that  Milo  was  arraigned  on 
those  two  accounts,  at  two  several  times,  and  not  before  the  same 
Quaestor. 

Pompeia  Lex,  the  author  Pompey  the  Great,  sole  Consul,  A.  701. 
By  this  it  was  enacted,  that  whoever,  having  been  convicted  of  a 
crime  of  this  nature,  should  afterwards  im^.-each  two  others  of  the 
same  crime,  so  that  one  of  them  was  condemned,  should  himself, 
upon  that  score,  be  pardoned.  The  short  form  of  judgment,  men- 
tioned in  Pompeia  Lex  de  vl,  was  ordered  too  by  this  law.** 

Julius  Ccjcsar  quite  ruined  the  freedom  and  fair  proceedings  in 
elections,  when  he  divided  the  right  of  chusing  magistrates  between 
himself  and  the  people,  or  rather  disposed  of  all  ottices  at  his  plea- 
sure.     Hence  Lucan: 

Nam  quo  melius  Pharsalicus  annus 


Consule  uoils  era  ?  Jingi    noletmia  campus, 
Et  lion  udmissiL  ihrimit  .-.uJJ'rugta  plcbis  : 
Decantat  jue  trilms,  et  vana  versatin  unia. 
Nee  culutn  servare  licet;  tonut  Jlugure  surdo : 
Et  luLtie  Juiantur  aves,  bubone  sinistra.* 

From  uluit  brave  Consul  couhl  the  >ear  receive 
A  sui  t  r  mark,  than  death  and  wars  shall  leave  f 
Assemblies  arc  a  ji  si  ;  and,  when  they  meet, 
I'lieg.iping  crowd  is  bubbled  with  a  cheat. 
The  lots  are  shook,  and  sorted  tribes  advance ; 
lUit  Carsar,  not  blind  fortune,  rules  the  cliance. 
Nor  impious  Home  heaven's  sacred  signs  obeys, 
Whde  Jove  still  thunders,  as  the  Augurs  please  : 
And  when  left  owls  some  dire  disaster  bode, 
The  staring  miscreants,  at  their  master's  nod. 
Look  to  the  right,  and  swear  the  omen's  good. 

But  Aut>-ustus  restored  the  old  privilege  to  the  Comitia,  and  re- 
strained the  unlawful  courses  used  in  the  convassing  at  elections  by 
several  penalties ;'  and  published,  for  this  purpose,  the  Lex  Julia 
de  Jlmbitu,  mentioned  in  the  Pandects. 

Leges  de  Pecuniis  repetiindis. 

Calpuniia  Lex,  the  author  L.  Calpurnius  Piso  Frugi,  A.  605,  or- 
dainin"-  a  certain  Praetor  for  the  inquisition  of  this  crime,  and  lay- 
ing a  great  penalty  on  offenders." 


'  In  Argument.  Milonian. 

•^  Idem. 

"  c»ueton,  in  Julio,  cbap.  41i 

'  i;ib.5.  V.  391. 


R  Sueton.  in  August,  chap.  40. 
^  Cicero  in    Bruto,  de    Offic.  lib.  2. 
Orat.  3,  in  Verrem. 


188 


OF  THE  CIVIL  GOVERNMENT 


OF    THE    ROMANS. 


189 


CtciJia  Lexy  mentionccJ  by  Valerius  Maximus/  Sigonius  believes 
this  law  to  be  the  very  same  with  the  former,  ami  that  either  the  two 
Tribunes,  Caecilius  and  Calpuriiius,  joined  in  the  making  of  it ;  and 
so  it  came  to  be  called  either  Calpumiay  or  Cacilia,  at  pleasure  ;  or 
that  in  this  place  we  ought  to  read  Calpurnia,  instead  of  Caecilia, 

Junia  Lex,  the  author  probably  M.  Junius  Pennus,  Tribune  of  the 
(  ommons,  A.  627,  ordaining,  that,  besides  the  litiH  xstimatio,  or  rat- 
ing of  the  damages,  the  person  convicted  of  this  crime  should  suft'er 
banishment.' 

Senjilia  LeXy  the  author  C.  Servilius  Glaucia,  Prxtor,  A.  653, 
several  frajrments  of  which  are  collected  from  authors,  and  trans- 
cribed  from  brazen  tablets  by  Sigonius. '^ 

Jlcilia  Lex,  the  author  M.  Acilius  Glabrio;  in  which  was  this  re- 
i«arkable  clause  ;  That  the  convicted  person  should  be  allowed  nei- 
ther ampUatiOy  nor  comperendinatio  ;  neither  a  new  hearing  at  a  set 
time  prefixed  by  the  Praetor,  nor  an  adjournment  of  the  trial,  till 
the  third  day  after  the  first  appearing  of  the  parties  in  the  court.' 

Cornelia  Lex,  the  author  L.  Cornelius  Sylla,  Dictator;  ordaining, 
that,  besides  the  litis  sestimatio,  the  person  convicted  of  this  crime 
should  be  interdicted  the  use  of  fire  and  water. 

Julia  Lex,  the  author  L.  Julius  Caesar;  this  kept  its  authority 
through  the  whole  series  of  the  emperors,  and  is  still  celebrated  in 
the  Pandects:  A  great  part  of  it  was  levelled  against  the  misde- 
meanours of  provincial  governors ;  many  of  which,  according  to  this 
law,  are  alleged  against  Piso,  who  had  been  Proconsul  in  Mace- 
donia, by  Cicero,  in  his  37th  oration. 

'    Lib.  6.  chap.  9  sect.  10. 

y    Cic.  in  Verreni,  et  pro  Bulbo.  Veil.  Paterc.  lib.  2. 

^  Cic.  pn-  P'  stimm   \)Vo  Ku  bi),  in  V<  rn-m.     Sigon.  de  judiciis,  lib.  2.0.  27. 

'   Cic.  in  V  riem,  \scon.  in  eastlem 

"»  Cic.  pro  Cluentio;  in  Verrem.  Ascon.  P^sdian,  in  Verrinas. 


I 


CHAPTER  XXXIX. 


MISCELLANY    LAWS    NOT    SPOKEN    OF    UNDER    THE    GENERAL    HEADb^. 

CLODM  Lex,  de  Collegiis,  the  author  P.  Clodius,  Tiibune  of  the 
commons,  A.  695,  ordaining,  that  the  collegia,  or  companies  of  arti- 
ficers instituted  by  Numa,  which  had  in  a  great  measure  been  laid 
down,  should  be  all  revived,  and  observed  as  formerly,  with  the  ad- 
dition of  several  new  companies." 

Csecilia  Lex  de  Jure  Italia,  et  trihutis  toUeiidis ;  the  autlior  Q. 
Caecilius  Metellus  Nepos,  Praetor,  A.  693,  ordaining,  that  the  tax 
called  Portoria  should  be  taken  oft*  from  all  the  Italian  states. 

Portoria,  according  to  Sigonius's  explication,  was  a  sort  of  toll 
paid  always  at  the  carrying  of  any  exportable  goods  to  the  haven ; 
whence  the  collectors  of  it  were  called  portitores. 

Lex  Julia  de  maritandis  ordinibus. 

The  Romans,  consulting  the  grandeurof  their  republic,  had  always 
a  particular  honour  for  a  married  state ;  and  nothing  was  more  usual 
than  for  the  Censors  to  impose  a  fine  upon  old  batchelors.  Dionysius 
llalicarnasseus''  mentions  an  old  constitution,  by  which  all  persons 
of  full  aire  w  ere  obliged  to  marrv  ;  but  the  first  law  of  which  we  have 
any  certainty  was  this  of  Augustus  Caesar,  pieferred  A.  736.  It 
did  not  pass  before  it  had  received  several  amendments,  being  at 
first  rejected  for  its  extreme  severity.  This  is  the  subject  of  Pro 
pertius's  seventh  elegy  of  the  third  book  : 

Gavisa  est  certe  suhlutam  Cynthia  legem,  tjfc. 

My  Cynthia  laughed  to  see  ihe  bill  tl»iown  out,  Stc. 

Horace  calls  it  Lex  AJatita,'^ 

A.  672,  this  law,  being  improved  and  enlarged,  was  preferred  in  a 
new  bill  by  Papius  and  Poppaeus,  the  consuls  at  that  time;  whence 
,t  is  sometimes  called  Papia  Poppaea  Lex,  and  generally  Julia  Papna, 

A  great  part  of  the  general  heads  are  collected  by  Lipsius,  in  nis 
comment  on  Tacitus  ;'  among  which,  the  m  )St  remarkable  are  those 
which  contain  the  sanctions  of  rewards  and  punishments. 

»  Cir   proSextio;  in  Pison.  pro         '   Dio  lib.  37.     CIr.  in  Epist.  ad  Altic. 
Ddnio.  A 'can.  in  Cornel.  P  Lit).  9  *5  h'  Carmine  Sxi  u-ari, 

'  Excurs.  ad  Tacit.  Ann.  lib.  2.  l.ircr.  C.    Vid.  Suet  in  Octavio,  chap.  34. 

26 


lyo 


OI     THE    I'lVIL    GOVERNMENT 


OF  THE   ROMANii. 


191 


As  to  the  first  of  tlicse,  it  was  hereby  ordained,  that  all  the  magife 
tmtes  should  take  precedence  according  to  their  numberot'  children, 
or  a  married  n»an  before  a  batchclor  ;  that  in  elections,  those  candi- 
dates should  be  j)referred  w  ho  had  the  most  numerous  oil'spring  ;  and 
that  any  person  nr!i;hJ  stand  s(»oner  than  ordinary  tor  an v  office,  iT  he 
had  as  n»anv  children  as  he  wanted  years  to  be  capable  of  bearing 
such  a  di<5nity  ;  that  whoever  in  the  city  had  three  children,  in  the 
otiier  parts  of  Italy  four,  and  in  the  provinces  five,  (or,  as  some  say, 
seven,)  should  be  e\cused  from  all  troublesome  offices  in  the  place 
where  he  lived.  Hence  came  the  famous  jus  trium  liheroriiin,  so 
freciuentlv  to  be  met  with  in  Plinv,  Martial,  Scu.  bv  which  the  em 
peror  often  obli«;ed  such  persons  with  this  privilege,  to  whom  na- 
tuie  had  denied  it. 

Of  the  penalties  incurred  by  such  as  in  spite  of  this  law  lived  a 
sinjrle  life,  the  chiel  was,  that  unman  ied  persons  should  be  incapable 
of  receiving  any  le;:;acy  or  irdieiitanceby  will,  unless  from  their  near 
relations  ;  and  such  as  were  married,  and  vet  had  no  children,  above 
half  ail  estate.  Hence,  Plutarch  has  a  severe  reflection  on  the 
covetous  humour  of  t!)e  ai^e  :  **  that  several  of  the  Romans  did  not 
marry  for  the  sake  (d'  heirs  to  their  own  fortunes;  but  that  they 
themselves  might,  upon  this  account,  be  capable  of  inheriting  tho 
estates  of  other  men. 

And  Juvenal  alludes  to  the  same  custom  : 

Jum  putcr  fs  .   (ifditnus  (jU;(l  fi  nur  oppuncre possts  ^ 
Jura  p.rcntiti  hubct  :  proplfv  me  siritttris  li.ires  ; 
JLegatum  omnc  cupis   ncc  non  et  dulce  cuilucuin  " 

"Sow  by  m}  loi,    hoii  ^i4iu\>  a  t;«rih<  r's  famt  ; 

Nk  moiT  sti.iil  {)()iiiiiiig    rowds  atirstthy  stiame, 

Ni)r  lioolino^  boys  lh\  impo  t-iice  procluim, 

Tliine  is  t  if  prhiW  gi-  «)»ir  l.tws  aHord 

To  him  t  at  s'aiKls  a  fi.ther  on  record  ; 

Im  misiTs'  Wills  yoti  sian  I  iiiK|ui'stioned  now, 

And  rctp  the  harvest  which  }Oii  coulil  not  sow. 

Claudia  Lex  dc  scriharum  neccotiatione. 

This  law  is  barely  mentioned  by  Suetonius  p  and  seems  a  part  of 
the  Lex  Claudia  or  Clodia,  abinit  the  trading  of  the  senators,  already 
explactcd.  It  appears,  therefore,  that  not  only  senators,  but  the 
scribes  too,  or  at  least  those  scribes  who  assisted  the  Quxstors,  were 
forbid  to  make  use  of  a  vessel  of  above  three  hundred  amphora. 
We  may  reasonably  suppose,  that  this  prohibition  was  not  laid  upon 
them,  in  respect  of  their  order  and  degree,  which  were  not  by  any 
mean?  eminent ;  but  rather,  upon  account  of  their  particular  place  or 


uifice  ;  because  it  looked  very  improper,  that  persons  who  were  con- 
cerned in  the  public  accounts,  should  at  the  same  time,  bv  dealing 
in  traffic  and  merchandize,  endeavour  rather  the  filling  their  own 
coffers,  than  improving  the  revenues  of  the  state. > 

Mimilia  Lex;  this  law,  as  well  as  the  former,  depends  upon  a 
single  authority,  being  just  named  by  Sallust,  and  not  explained 
by  Manutius  or  Rosinus.  It  seems  to  have  been  to  this  purpose; 
that  since  affairs  had  been  very  often  ill  managed  bv  the  nobility 
those  persons  whose  ancestors  had  held  no  ma-istracy  in  the  state' 
such  as  they  called  homines  mwi,  should,  for  th^e  future,  be  allowed 
the  privilege  of  holding  public  ofhces.J 

Mnia  Lex  de  Furtii,  ordaining,  that  no  prescription  should  se- 
cure the  possession  of  stolen  goods  ;  but  that  the  proper  owner 
should  have  an  eternal  right  to  th^m.' 


^  \      I    n    nt    in  not   ad  locuu) 
'  In  Well.  Jujfurihin, 


>'  \     M  ( iiiK)  III  no-     .(I  lori.m. 
»  W;ir.  Vhit  .^,     A    Gell.  chap. 


•  prp»  tp  t  1  . . 


«  Sat.  9.  V  86. 

"  In  Dumit.  chap.  P. 


OF  thj:  ROM  am  art  of  war, 


193 


V  MM    ll.—liUOk   l\ 


Ml    rm   i«»M  \N  AH  r  oi   w  w 


ni  \vv\M  I. 

1  in-    i.i.virs  <)i     1111     uuM\N   I  (»(>!. 

V  V    \\u'  '^nm^  i'wxu^  oi  tlu^  \r;u    ili;»i    i!m«  Consuls  \v<tc  (icrlanMJ 
fin  '.s/ir/jo/,   tlu'v  *  lose  ilu'  militaix    riilmnrs,  tourtcrn  ont  (it 

l\\v  lh»(l>  (»rihe  i:tiuitis,  wlio  lia<t  srrvctl  in  flu'  j»rmv  fiv«»  years  ;  arnl 
tni  (ttit  ulll'.r  ronruoi^ilty,  siirli  as  \\m\  wvmU*  ten  campaigns.  'V\\v 
hiinuM-  lU'^v  .nlli'd   '/'nhrni  jmiiorts ^  ihr  latter  sminrfs. 

riu"  I  oii.u,^  ;;..». ..^  »..,.oiMl  "  vN  ^as,  in  the  tiuH'of  the  («mi 

menneaillu  they  usually  kWA  cm  in  s.  .,i)  they  issuetl  out  an  edict. 
ooinnian»li!ij;  all  persons  >\ho  iwul  reached  the  military  a^ije  (about 
Si  venteen  years)  tn  appear  (con\n»only)  in  the  eapitol,  oi-  hi  the  aro;i 
helrMe  the  i  apitol,  us  ihe  most  saered  and  aiii;ust  plaee,  on  such  w 
^^ia,.    I  r..  .1.'  !ii«;ns"t'on\.'  tovither,  and  the  ConsuU,  who  presid 

.  '  •      .1  .,U^\\  their  seat,  in  the  first  place,  the 

t,.u  and  tueaiN  i  uauuc>  wore  dep(»setl  of,  ac  cordir.g  to  the  number 
of  le^ioris  thev  desi<rneil  ti>  make  up,  which  was  j^enerally  four.  The 
ju'.hM-  Tribunes  were  assij:rMed,  four  to  tlie  first  legion,  three  to  the 
seccnd,  fur  lo  ihe  third,  and  three  tothe  last.  The  senior  Tribunes, 
tw  J  to  the  lii:i  leijion  and  ihe  third;  three  to  the  second  and  la^t. 
At'ier  tlr  *-"«  •  ^'  :?> .  '>eing  called  out  by  lot,  was  ordered  to  divide 
ml  »  then  proper  wcuuuies  ;  out  of  eaclicentury  were  soldiers  cited 
h\  name,  w  ith  respect  had  to  tlieir  estate  and  class  ;  for  which  pur- 
pt)se  there  were  tables  ready  at  hand,  in  which  the  name,  age,  and 
wealth  of  every  person  was  exactly  described.  Four  men,  as  much 
alike  in  all  circumstances  as  could  be  pitched  upon,  being  presented 
out  of  the  centurv,  firsl  the  Tribunes  of  the  first  legion  chose  one, 
then  the  Tribunes  of  the  second  another,  the  Tribunes  of  the  third 
legion  a  third  man,  and  the  remaining  person  fell  to  the  Tribunes  of 
the  fourth.  Then  four  more  weie  <lrawn  out ;  and  now  the  right  of 
choosing  first  belonged  to  the  Tribunes  of  ihe  second  legion  ;  in  the 


next  four  to  the  Tribunes  ot  the  third  letjion  :  *'  "•  *'»  the  Trib'uf  -. 
of  *  '  Mifh  legion,  and  so  round,  those  Tiibuni  -.  i  noosing  last  the 
n  "',  ^ho  chose  first  the  time  before  ;  the  most  erpial  and  rc^"^'!- 

lat   iii'thod  imaginable. 

('icero  has  remiii  k»d  a  supeistitimis  (  ustom  observed  in  fhese 
pMMccdings;  that  the  first  soldiers  pitched  upon,  shouhl,  for  the 
oiiitii's  sake,  be  such  as  had  fortunate  names,  as  Hal'  *  •  Valerius, 
and  the  like.' 

TIkmc  were  many  legal  excuses  wIim  h  might  k^ep  persons  from 
the  list;  as,  in  case  they  were  fifty  years  old  ;  for  then  they  could 
not  be  obliged  to  serve  ;  or  if  they  enjoyed  any  civil  or  sacred  office, 
which  they  coiiM  not  conveniently  relinrpiish  ;  or  if  th(*y  had  already 
jnaih-  twenty  campaigns,  which  wa-^  ♦'  •■  time  rcfjuired  for  every  foot 
soldier;  or  if.  upon  account  of  exuaoirlinary  merit,  they  had  been 
by  public  authority  released  from  the  trouble  of  serving  for  such  a 
lime  ;  or  if  they  were  maimed  in  any  part,  and  so  ought  not  to  be 
■idiiiitted  into  the  legions  ;  as  Suetonius  tells  us  of  a  fatlier,  who  cut 
olf  the  thumbs  of  his  two  sons,  on  purpose  to  k^'^-p  them  out  of  the 
irmy."  And  Valerius  Maximus  gives  a  relatinn  .d  the  like  nature." 

Otherwise  they  were  necessitated  to  submit ;  and  in  case  of  a  re- 
fusal, were  usually  punished,  either  with  imprisonment,  fine,  or 
^tripe^,  according  to  tlie  lenity  or  severity  of  fwe  Consul.  Anci 
therefore  it  seems  stranije  that  Macliiavel  should  particularly  com- 
mend the  Roman  discipline,  upon  account  of  forcing  no  one  tothe 
wars,  when  we  have  in  all  part^  of  iiistory  such  large  intimations  of 
a  contrary  practice.  Nay,  we  read  too  of  the  ronrjifUitorfs,  or  im- 
press-masters, who  were  commissionefJ,  upon  some  occasions,  to  go 
about  and  compel  men  to  the  service  of  the  state. 

V  iileriu^  Maximus  '  gives  us  one  example  of  clianging  this  custom 
of  tdkiiig  out  every  particular  sold-f-r  V>v  the  Tribunes,  for  that  oi' 
choosing  them  by  lot.  And  Appiaiiu-,  Alexandrinus'  acquaints  us. 
that  in  the  .Spanish  war  managed  by  Lucullus,  upon  complaint  to  the 
senate  of  several  unju-t  practices  in  the  levies,  the  father;,  tliou^ht 
fit  to  choose  all  the  soldiers  by  lot.  Vet  the  same  author  assures  us, 
tliat  within  five  years  time  the  old  custom  rerumefl.  of  niakin**-  the 
levies  in  the  nianner  already  described. 

However  upon  anv  extraordinarv  occasuii  ui  i!iiMeai;iLe  service, 
they  omitted  the  common  foinialities,  and  without  much  distinction 
listed    such   as    they  met  with,  and  led  them  out  on  nv  dition. 

These  they  termed  Miiites  subitanl. 


'  Cic.  de  Divinat.  lib.  1. 
'^  Siieton.  Aug^tist   chap.  -24. 
V.-xl   Max   16.'-   J 


^  L.. 
In  Ibe 


194 


Ok    THE    ROMA^ 


ART    OF    WAR* 


195 


CHAPTER  H. 

TflE  LEVY  AMJ  KE\  \K\\   OF   IIIK  CAVALRY. 

ROMULUS,  having  established  the  senate,  chose  three  hundred 
of  the  stoutest  young  men  out  of  the  most  noble  families  to  serve 
i>n  horseback  :  lUit,  after  the  institution  of  the  Census  by  Servius 
Tullius,  all  those  persons  had  the  honour  of  being  adniitted  into  the 
order  of  the  IJat/ifes,  who  were  worth  four  hundred  sestertia  ;  vet 
no  nian  was  thus  enrolled  by  the  Kings  or  ('onsuls,  or  afterwards 
by  the  Censors,  unless,  besides  the  estate  required,  no  exception 
could  be  taken  against  his  person  or  morals.  If  these  were  uncjues- 
tionable,  his  name  was  entered  among  the  knights,  and  a  horse  and 
ring  given  him  at  the  pul)lic  charge;  he  being  obliged  to  appriii  foi 
the  future  on  horseback,  as  often  as  the  state  should  have  occasion 
for  his  service. 

So  that  there  being  always  a  sufticient  number  of  Equitcs  in  the 
city,  there  needed  only  a  review  in  order  to  fit  them  for  service. 
Learned  men  have  very  little  agreement  in  this  point ;  yet  we  ma\ 
venture  to  take  notice  of  three  several  sorts  of  reviews,  prohatio, 
transvectwy  and  what  tliey  teiined  proj)erly  reccnsio ;  though  they 
are  usually  confounded,  and  seldom  understood. 

T\\(^  prohafin  we  may  conceive  to  have  been  a  diligent  search  into 
the  lives  and  manners  of  the  Equites,  and  a  strict  observation  of 
their  plights  of  body,  arms,  horses,  c^c.  This  is  supposed  to  have 
been  commonlv  made  once  a  vear. 

Ti'unsvpctin  Lipsius  makes  the  same  as  probatioy  but  he  is  certain 
iy  mistaken  ;  since  all  the  hints  we  meet  with  concerning  it  in  the 
authors,  argue  it  to  have  been  rather  a  pompous  ceremony  and  prO' 
cession,  than  an  examination.  The  most  learned  Graevius  observes 
it  to  have  been  always  made  in  the  Forum.'  Uionysius  describ«*s  it 
in  the  following  manner:  "The  sacrifices  being  finished,  all  thu^e 
who  are  allowed  horses  at  the  expense  of  the  state,  ride  along  in  or- 
der, as  if  returning  from  battle,  being  habited  in  the  togyt;  paliiuitx, 
or  the  trabeti*,  and  crowned  with  wreaths  of  olive.  The  processmn 
begins  at  the  temple  of  Mars,  without  the  walls,  and  is  carried  on 
through  all  the  eminent  parts  of  the  city,  particularly  the  Forum, 
and  the  teoiple  of  Castor  and  Pollux.  The  number  sometimes  rciu  h- 
cs  to  five  thousand;  efery  man  bearii:gthe  gifts  and  ornaments  re* 

*  I'rxtttt.  ati  L  VoL  I'uesaur.  Am.  Rom, 


.eived  as  a  reward  of  his  valour  from  the  general;  u  mo=t  glorious 
sight,  and  wortiiy  of  the  Roman  grandeur."  ^ 

This  solemnity  «as  instituted  to  the  honour  of  Castor  and  Pollux 
«h«,  in  the  hattle  with  the  Latins,  about  the  year  of  the  city  ■2.57 
appeared  m  the  field  personally  assisting  the  Romans ;  and,  presently 
alter  .he  hght,  were  seen  at  Rome  (just  by  the  fountain  where  theiV 
te.uple  «  as  afterwards  built)  upon  horses  all  foaming  with  >vhile  fro- 
thy sweat,  as  If  they  had  rode  post  to  bring  tidings  of  the  victory.^ 
The  proper  recmsio  was  tlie  account  taken  by  the  Censors  every 
lustrum,  when  all  the  people,  as  well  as  the  EquUc.  were  to  appear 
at  the  general  survey  :  so  that  it  was  only  a  more  solemn  and  accu- 
rate sort  of  probation,  with  the  addition  of  enrolling  new  nan.es. 
cancelling  old  ones,  and  other  circumstances  of  that  nature. 

Besides  all  this,  it  was  an  usual  custom  for  the  Kquites,  when 
they  had  served  out  their  legal  time  in  the  wars,  to  lead  their  horse 
solemnly  into  the  Forum,  to  the  seat  of  the  two  Censors,  and  there 
having  given  an  account  of  the  commanders  under  whom  they  had 
served,  as  also  the  time,  places,  and  actions  relating  to  their  service 
they  were  discharged,  every  man  with  honour  or  disgrace  according 
as  he  deserved.  For  this  account  we  are  indebted  to  Plutarch, « l,o 
Sives  a  particular  relation  how  this  ceremony  was  performed  vMth 
universal  applause  by  Pompey  the  Great. 

It  might  be  brought  as  a  very  good  argument  of  the  obscurity  and 
contusion  ol  these  matters,  that,  of  two  very  learned  men,  one  n.akes 
this  ey«,  rcdduio  the  same  as  the  probatio,^  the  other  the  same  a. 
the  transvtciioJ 

Non  nostrum  tantas  componere  lites. 

The  emperors  often  took  review  of  the  cavalry;  and  Augustus 
particularly  restored  the  old  custom  of  the  tramvectio,  which  had 
before  been  discontinued  for  some  time. 

It  is  hard  to  conceive  that  all  the  Roman  horse  in  the  army  should 
consist  oi  knights;  and  for  that  reason  Sigonius.  and  many  othei- 
learned  men,  make  a  distinction  in  the  cavalry,  between  those  who 
>erved  «y«<,  ;;,,Wa„,  and  those  that  served  eqtw  privato  ;  the  former 
;hey  allow  to  have  been  of  the  order  of  knights,  the  latter  not.  But 
^ra^v.us  and  his  noble  countryman  Schelius  have  proved  this  opinion 
to  be  a  groundless  conjecture.  They  demonstrate  from  the  course 
"  history,  that,  trom  the  beginning  of  the  Roman  state  till  the  time 
"1  -Manus.  uo  other  horse  entered  the  legions  but  the  true  and  pro- 

«  Dionvs.  H.<lic.  lib.  6.  h  pi„,   :„  r.     •  , 

'  H.rman.  Hu^o  cle  Mili.ia  F^questri.  lib.  2.  rZl,       ^°''"^^- 
^ijj'on.  Annot.  ad  Liv.  lib.  9.  chap.  46.  * 


is 


19b 


of  THE    ROMAN 


ART  OF   WAR. 


197 


per  k?iiL:;l\<s,  except  in  the   iiiiil«.t  (if  public  confusion,  when  orciei 
anti  (listipline  were  ne<j;lectetl. 

After  lli;it  period,  the  military  atVaiis  beinjr  new  mocU'llecl,  the 
kniMits  thouirlit  not  til  to  expose  themselves  abroad  in  the  ley^icus, 
as  they  had  formerly  done,  but  <2;enerally  kept  at  home  to  enjoy  their 
estates,  and  <o  have  a  hand  in  the  transactions  of  the  city  ;  an<l  their 
phu  es  in  tlie  army  were  filleil  by  foreii;n  horse  ;  or  if  they  ever  n»ade 
campai;:;ns  themselves,  they  held  soon-  post  of  honour  and  (ommaiid. 
Heme,  under  the  emperor-,  a  man  mii:;ht  be  a  kni^^ht,  and  have 
the  honour  of  a  publir  horse,  without  ever  en^a^in;;  in  the  public 
cause,  or  ^o  mu(  h  as  touching  arms  ;  which  consideration  made  s«.uie 
primes  lav  a>ide  the  custom  of  allowing  the  kninjhts  a  hor>e,  and 
lease  tiiem  oidy  their  ^old  rin;j;  to  distins^uish  their  order,  as  IMiiiy^ 
senior  at^irms  to  liave  been  done  in  hi-*  time. 


their  rendezvous.  The  states  accordini^ly  convened  their  men,  and 
choosinji;  out  their  desired  number,  j2;ave  them  an  oath,  and  assigned 
iIm'Ui  a  counnander  in  chief,  and  a  paymaster-general.  We  may  ob- 
serve, that  in  the  time  of  Polybius,  all  Italy  was  indeed  subject  to 
tlie  Romans  ;  yet  no  state  or  people  in  it  had  been  reduced  into  the 
form  of  a  province  ;  as  they  in  general  retained  their  old  governors 
jud  laws,  and  were  termed  socii  or  confederates. 

Hut  after  all,  the  Italians  were  not  only  divided  into  separate  pro- 
vinces, but  afterwards  honoured  w  ith  the  Jus  civitatis  ;  the  name  of 
wcii  ceased,  all  the  natives  of  Italy  being  accounted  Romans  ;  and 
therefore,  instead  of  the  social  troops,  the  aujilia  were  afterwards 
procured,  which  are  carefully  to  be  distinguished  from  the  former. 
They  were  sent  by  foreign  states  and  princes,  at  the  desire  of  the 
Roman  senate  or  generals,  and  were  allowed  a  ^et  pay  from  the  re- 
public; whereas  the  tiocii  received  no  consideration  for  their  service, 
Mut  a  distribution  of  corn. 


CH APTKR  111. 

[WV.     Mll.rrAUV     OATH,    AND    TIIK    LKVIES    OK    THK    COXF>.DKRATL.S. 

THK  levies  beinu;  finished,  the  Tribunes  of  every  legion  (hose  out 
one  whom  they  thought  the  fittest  person,  and  gave  him  a  solemn 
oath  at  large,  the  substance  of  which  was,  that  he  should  oblige  him 
self  to  obey  the  commanders  in  all  things  to  the  utmost  of  his  power, 
be  ready  to  attend  whenever  they  ordered  his  appearance,  and  never 
to  leave  the  army  but  by  tlieir  consent.  After  he  had  ended,  the 
whole  legion,  passing  one  by  one,  every  man,  in  short,  swore  to  the 
same  effect,  crying  as  he  w  ent  by.  Idem  in  me. 

Tiiis  and  some  other  oaths  were  so  essential  to  the  military  state^ 
that  Juvenal  uses  the  word  aacrahirnta  for  milites  or  mUitiiey  t^at. 
xvi.  35. 

Prxmia  nunc  alia,  atquc  alia  emolumenta  notemus 
Scicramtntorum 

As  to  the  raising  the  confederate  troops,  Polybius  informs  us,  that 
dl  the  sa'oe  time  as  the  levies  were  made  in  Rome,  the  Consuls  gave 
notice  to  the  cities  of  the  allies  in  Italy,  intimating  the  number  ot 
forces  they  should  have  occasion  to  borrow  of  them,  together  with 
ijie  time  and  place  when  and  where  they  would  have  tlicm  make 

>*  Lib.  33.  chap.  1.  vUl.  Grn:v.  Fr.-cf  ad  vol.  1 .  Th.  Pvom. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


OI    THE    EVOCATI. 


THE  most  eminent  degree  of  soldiers  were  the  evorati,  taken  as 
well  out  of  allies  as  citizens,  out  of  horse  as  foot,  not  by  force,  but 
At  the  rec[uest  and  entreaty  of  the  Consuls  or  other  ollicers ;  for 
winch  purpose  letters  were  commonly  dispatched  to  every  particu- 
lar man  whom  they  designed  thus  to  invite  into  their  service,  'liiese 
tvere  old  and  experienced  soldiers,  and  generally  such  as  had  serv- 
ed out  their  legal  time,  or  had  received  particular  marks  of  favour 
as  a  reward  of  their  valour,  on  which  accounts  they  were  styled 
fnuriti,  and  buu/idarii.  Scarce  any  war  was  undertaken,  but  a 
jlieat  number  of  those  were  invited  into  the  army ;  therefore  they 
tiad  the  honour  to  be  reckoned  almost  equal  with  the  centurions.  In 
the  field  they  usually  guarded  the  chief  standard,  being  excused 
bom  all  the  military  drudgery,  of  standing  on  the  watch,  labouring 
m  the  works,  and  other  servile  employments. 

The  emperor  Galba  gave  the  same  name  of  evocali  to  a  select 
band  of  young  gentlemen  of  the  exquestrian  rank,  whom  he  kept  as 
a  guard  in  his  palace.' 

'  Sueton.  in  Gulb.  chap.  10. 
27 


198 


OF    Tin:    ROMAS 


ART    OP    WAR. 


I9j& 


(  ilAPTKR  V. 

IIIK  SKVKUAL   KINDS   OF  llIF,    IU>MA\    FOOT,  AND  TIIP:iU  DIVISION   INTO 

MXMl'l   I.I.    COHORTS,    AND    I.KGIONS 

THE  whole  Roman  infantry  was  dividotl  into  four  sorts,  veliies, 
has/f/fi,  prinripes,  arul  triarii, 

Tlu'  rr/ifes  were  connnonly  someof  the /«roy?e.9,  or  younj;  soldiers, 
of  mean  c(»ndition,  and  lifchtly  armed.  They  had  their  name  it  vo- 
lanifn,  or  n  rdocitale,  from  their  swiftness  and  expedition.  Tliey 
seen»  not  to  have  been  divided  into  distinct  bodies  or  companies,  but 
to  have  hovered  in  loose  order  before  the  army. 

The  huHtali  were  so  called,  because  they  used  in  ancient  times  to 
fii!;ht  with  spears,  which  were  afterwards  laid  aside,  as  incommodi- 
ous ;  these  were  taken  out  the  next  in  age  to  the  velites. 

The  prhicipcs  were  jrenerally  men  of  middle  a«:;e  and  of  greatest 
\igour  ;  it  is  probable  that,  before  the  institution  of  the  hastati,  they 
used  to  begin  the  tight,  whence  they  borrowed  their  name. 

The  triarii  were  commonlv  veterans,  or  hardv  old  soldiers,  of 
long  experience  and  approved  valour.  They  had  their  name  from 
their  position,  being  marshalled  in  the  third  place,  as  the  main 
strength  and  hopes  of  theii-  party.  They  arc  sometimes  called  yv//«- 
r//,  from  their  w  capons  pila. 

Every  one  of  these  grand  divisions,  except  the  velites,  composed 
thirty  mcwipuli  or  companies  ;  every  launipvlm  made  two  centuries 
or  or  dines. 

Three  inftnipfi/i,  one  of  the  hasfafi,  another  of  the  principes,  and 
a  third  of  tiie  Inarii,  composed  a  cohors.  Among  these,  one  was 
filled  with  st)u»e  «>f  the  choicest  soldiers  and  officers,  obtaining  the 
honourable  title  lA' prima  cohors.  We  meet  too  with  the  prstforia 
coliors,  instituted  by  JScipio  Numantius  ;  selected  for  the  most  part 
out  u\'  \\\e  evocati  or  reformades,  and  obliired  onlv  to  attend  on  the 
Praetor  or  general  ;  and  this  gave  original  to  i\\e pnxtoriani,  the  life- 
guard of  the  emperors. 

Ten  coliorts  made  up  a  legion  ;  the  exact  number  of  foot  in  such  a 
battalion  Uonuilus  fixed  at  three  thousand  ;  though  Plutarch  assures 
»s,  that,  after  the  reception  of  the  Sabines  into  Rome,  he  encreased 
it  to  six  tliousand.  The  common  number  afterwards,  in  the  first 
tiniesi  of  the  free  state,  was  four  thousand ;  in  the  war  with  Hannibal. 


it  arose  to  five  thousand.  After  this,  it  is  probable  they  sunk  to 
alxmt  four  thousand,  or  four  thousand  two  hundred  again  ;  which 
was  the  number  in  the  time  of  Polybius. 

In  the  age  of  Julius  C  csar,  we  do  not  find  any  legions  exceed- 
ing the  Polybian  number  of  men ;  and  he  himself  expressly  speaks 
of  two  legions  that  did  not  make  above  seven  thousand  between 
them."' 

The  number  of  legions  kept  in  pay  together,  was  different,  accord- 
inij  to  the  various  times  and  occasions.  During  the  free  state,  four 
legions  were  commonly  fitted  up  every  year,  and  divided  between 
the  Consuls;  yet,  in  cases  of  necessity,  we  sometimes  meet  with  no 
less  than  sixteen  or  eighteen  in  Livy. 

Augustus  maintained  a  standing  army  of  twenty-three,  or  (as  some 
will  have  it)  of  twenty-five  legions ;  but  in  after  times  we  seldom  find 
so  many. 

They  borrowed  their  names  from  the  order  in  which  they  were 
raised,  as  prima,  secunda,  tertia;  but  because  it  usually  happened, 
that  there  were  several  primae,  secimdae,  Sfc.  in  several  places,  upon 
tliat  account  they  took  a  sort  of  surname  besides,  either  from  the 
emperors  w  ho  first  constituted  them,  as  Jiugusta,  Claudiana,  Galbi- 
ana,  Flavia,  Uipia,  Trajana,  Anioniana ;  or  from  the  provinces 
which  had  been  conquered,  chiefly  by  their  valour,  as  Pft/'Miccr,  S'cy- 
thicoy  Gallica.  Arabica,  <^c. ;  or  from  the  names  of  the  particular 
deities,  for  whom  their  commanders  had  an  especial  honour,  as  Mi- 
nervia,  and  Jippullinares ;  or  from  the  region  where  they  had  their 
cjuarters,  as  Cretensis,  Cyrenaica,  Britannica,  Sfc;  or  sometimes 
upon  account  of  lesser  accidents,  as  Mjutrix,  Martia,  Fulminalrij', 
UupaXy  <ifc. 


CHAPTER  \T. 

THE    DIVISION    OF    THE    CAVALRY,    AND    OF    THE    ALLIES. 

THE  horse  required  to  every  legion  was  three  hundred,  divided 
xnto  ten  turmcs,  or  troops,  thirty  to  a  troop,  every  turma  making 
three  decurice,  or  bodies  often  men. 

This  number  of  three  hundred  they  termed  Justus  equitatus,  and 

^  Commentar.  lib.  5. 


'riOO 


OF    THE    ROMAN 


is  uinleistood  as  often  as  we  meet  with  /tisio  cum  suo  eqvitatti,  or 
l€i:rio  cum  Jifsfu  eipdfafu.  And  though  we  now  and  then  find  a  dif- 
ferent nu?nber,as  two  hundred  in  a  place  or  two  of  Livy  and  Cxsar; 
yet  we  must  suppose  this  alteration  to  have  proceeded  from  some 
extraordinary  cause,  and  consequently  to  be  of  no  authority  against 
tile  common  current  of  historv. 

'I  he  foieign  troops,  under  which  we  may  now  comprise  the  socil 
antl  auxiliaries,  were  not  divided,  as  the  citizens,  into  legions,  but 
first  into  two  «;reat  bodies,  termed  al^r  or  coniua,'dnd  those  a^jain  into 
compa!iies,  usually  of  the  same  nature  with  those  of  the  Romans; 
th:Mi;;h,  as  to  this,  we  have  little  light  in  history.  It  is  a  matter  of 
small  imjtortance. 

We  may  farther  remark,  that  the  forces  which  the  Romans  bor- 
rowed of  the  confederate  states  were  equal  to  their  ow  n  in  foot,  and 
double  in  horse;  though,  by  disposing  and  dividing  them  with  great 
policy  and  caution,  they  prevented  any  design  that  they  might  possi- 
bly entertain  against  the  natural  forces  ;  for  about  a  third  part  of  the 
foreii:;n  horse,  and  a  fifth  of  the  foot,  was  separated  from  the  rest,  un- 
der the  name  of  extraordinarii;  and  a  more  choice  part  of  those 
with  the  title  of  «^/cc/i. 

In  the  time  of  the  emperors,  the  auxiliary  forces  were  commonl)^ 
honoured  with  the  name  and  constitution  of  leirions,  though  the  more 
ancient  appellation  {){'  aico  frequently  occurs. 

They  were  called  alab  (the  wings)  from  their  position  in  the  army  ; 
and  therefore  we  must  expect  sometimes  to  find  the  same  name  ap- 
plied to  the  Roman  soldiers,  when  they  happened  to  have  the  sam*' 
stations. 


ART  OF  WAR. 


i20l 


CilAPTKR  VII. 

CHK  OfKKKUS  IN  THE  ROMAN  ARMY  ;  AND  FIRST,  OF  THE  CENTU- 
RIONS AND  THIRUNES  ;  WITH  THE  COMMANDERS  OF  THE  HORSE 
AND  OF  THE   CONFEDERATE  FORCES. 

THE  military  officers  may  be  divided,  according  to  Lipsius,  into 
proper  and  common,  the  first  presiding  over  some  particular  part, 
as  the  Centurions  and  Tribunes,  the  other  using  an  equal  authority 
over  the  whole  force,  as  the  legati  and  the  general. 

AVe  €»rH4ujt  liave  a  tolerable  notion  of  the  centurions,  without  re- 
memberiui!;  what  hos  been  alreadv  delivered  :  that  every  one  of  the 


thirty  hianipuU  in  a  legicMi  was  divided  into  two  ordines,  or  ranks  ; 
and,  consequently,  the  three  bodies  of  the  ha-siati,  principes,  and 
triariiy  into  twenty  orders  a  piece,  as  into  ten  manipidi.  Now  every 
manipidus  was  allowed  two  centurions  or  captains  :  one  to  each  or- 
der or  century  ;  and,  to  determine  the  point  of  prioritv  between 
them,  they  were  created  at  two  different  elections.  The  thirtv,  w  ho 
were  made  first,  always  took  the  precedency  of  their  fellows,  and 
therefore  commanded  the  right-hand  orders,  as  the  others  did  the 
left. 

The  triarli,  or  pllaai,  being  esteemed  the  most  honourable,  had 
their  centurions  elected  first ;  next  to  them  the  principes,  and  after- 
wards  the  liastati ,-  whence  they  were  called  primm  et  secundiis 
pUm,  primus  et  sccundusprinceps,  primus  et  secimdus  hastatus  ;  and 
so  on. 

Here  it  may  be  observed,  i\\2ii  primi  ordines  is  used  sometimes  in 
historians,  for  the  centurions  of  those  orders;  and  the  same  centu- 
rions are  sometimes  styled  principes  ordinma,  and  principes  ceniu- 
riunum. 

We  may  take  notice,  too,  what  a  large  field  there  lay  for  promo- 
lion ;  first  through  all  the  orders  of  the  hastati,  then  quite  through 
the  principes ;  and  afterwards  from  the  last  order  of  the  triarii  to 
{\\cprimipUus,  the  most  honourable  of  the  centurions,  and  who  de- 
serves to  be  particularly  described. 

This  officer,  besides  his  name  of  primipilus,  went  under  the  seve- 
ral titles  of  dux  Icgionis,  prsefectus  legionis,  primus  ccnturionum,  and 
primus  centurio  ;  and  was  the  centurion  of  the  right  hand  order  of 
ilie  first  munipulus  of  the  triarians  ov  pilani,  in  every  le«-ion.  He 
presided  over  all  the  other  centurions;  and,  generally,  ^rave  the 
word  of  command  in  exercises  and  engagements,  bv  order  of  the 
Tribunes.  Besides  this,  he  had  the  care  of  the  eagle,  or  chief  stand- 
ard of  tiie  legion;  hence,  aquilds praeesse  is  to  bear  the  dignity  of 
primipilus  ;  and  hence  uquila  is  taken  by  Pliny  for  the  said  oftice ; 
and  Juvenal  seems  to  intimate  the  same,  Sat.  xiv.  197, 

Ut  focupletcm  uqiiilam  tibi  sexa^esitnus  annus 
^icifercit 

Nor  was  this  station  only  honourable,  but  very  profitable  too;  for 
he  had  a  special  stipend  allowed  him,  probably  as  much  as  a  knio-ht's 
estate  ;  and,  when  he  left  that  charge,  was  reputed  equal  to  the 
members  of  the  ecjuestrian  order,  bearing  the  title  o{ Primipilarius ; 
in  the  same  manner  as  those  who  had  discharged  the  greatest  civil 
offices  were  styled  ever  after  Consulares,  Censorii,  Prsetorii,  Quaes- 
torii,  and  ^^dilitii. 

The  badge  of  the  cenlurion'ti  office  was  the  vitis  or  rod,  which 


1 


2(J2 


OF    THE    ROMAN 


ART    OF    WAR. 


203 


they  bore  in  their  hand,  whence  vitem  poscere  imports  the  same  as 
to  sue  for  a  centurion's  place.  The  evorati  too  had  the  privilej^e 
of  using  the  vitiSy  as  being  in  all  respects  rather  superior  to  the 
centurions. 

As  to  the  reason  why  this  rod  should  be  made  of  a  vine-branch, 
an  old  scholiast  upon  Juvenal  has  a  merry  fancy,  that  Bacchus  made 
use  of  such  a  sceptre  in  his  martial  expedition,  and  recommended 
the  use  of  it  to  posterity. 

Besides  the  centurions,  every  manipulus  had  two  vexiJlarii  oxen- 
signs;  and  every  centurion  chose  two  optiones  or  auccenturionesy  to 
be  his  deputies  or  lieutenants. 

The  Tribunes  owe  their  name  and  original  to  Romulus's  institu- 
tion, when  he  chose  three  officers-in-chief  of  that  nature,  out  of  the 
three  tribes  into  which  he  divided  his  city.  The  number  afterwards 
increased  to  six  in  every  legion.    They  were  created,  as  at  tirst  by 
the  kings,  so  afterwards  by  the  Consuls  for  some  time,  till  about  A. 
CJ.  C.  393,  when  the  people  assumed  this  right  to  themselves;  and, 
though  in  the  war  with  Perseus  king  of  Macedon,  this  privilege  was 
regained  by  the  Consuls,'  yet  we  find  that,  in  the  very  same  war,  it 
quickly  after  returned  to  the  people.     It  is  probable,  that  soon  after 
they  divided    this  power  between    them,  one  half  of  the  Tribunes 
were  assigned  by  the  Consuls,  the  other  half  elected  by  the  people. 
The  former  sort  were  termed    Biffu/i  or  Puiuli ;  because  one  Ruti- 
Uiis  Rufua  preferred  a  law  in  their  behalf;  the  others  Comitiati,  be- 
cause they  obtained  their  command  by  the   public  votes  in  the  Co- 
mifia.     They  were  sometimes  taken  out  of  the  equestrian  and  sena- 
torian  orders  ;  and  in  the  time  of  the  Caesars,  most  (li'  not  all)  of  the 
Tribunes  seem  to  have  been  either  senators  or  knights.  Upon  which 
account,  they  were  divided  into  the  latidavii,  and  the  angustidavii; 
the  laluH  cUwus  properly  belonging  to  the  former,  and  the  angustus 
tluviis  to  the  latter. 

The  business  of  the  Tribunes  was  to  decide  all  controversies  in 
the  army  ;  to  give  the  word  to  the  watch  ;  besides,  they  had  the  care 
of  the  works  and  camp,  and  several  other  particulars,  which  will 
fall  under  our  notice  upon  some  other  occasion. 

They  had  the  honour  of  wearing  a  gold  ring,  in  the  same  manner 
tis  the  Equites;  and,  because  their  office  was  extremely  desired,  to 
encourage  and  promote  as  many  as  possible,  their  command  lasted 
but  six  months.  For  the  knowledge  of  both  these  customs,  we  are 
beholden  to  one  verse  of  Juvenal,  Sat.  vii.  89. 

Semestri  vatum  digitos  circumlijat  uuro. 


Kvery  turma,  or  troop  of  horse,  had  three  Decurions,  or  captains 
often;  but  he  that  was  first  elected  commanded  the  troop,  and  the 
others  were  but  his  lieutenants;  though  every  one  of  the  Decurions 
tiad  an  optlo  or  deputy  under  him. 

As  to  the  confederate  or  foreign  force,  we  are  not  certain  how  the 
smaller  bodies  of  them  were  commanded  ;  but  it  seems  most  probable, 
that  the  Romans  generally  marshalled  them  according  to  their  own 
discipline,  and  assigned  them  oflicers  of  the  same  nature  with  those 
of  the  legions.  But  the  two  ala;,  or  great  divisions  of  the  allies,  we 
are  assured  had  each  a  Praefect  appointed  them  by  the  Roman  Con- 
sul, who  governed  in  the  same  manner  as  the  legionary  Tribunes. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE  LEGATI,  AND  THE  IMPERATOR  OR  GENERAL. 

THE  design  of  the  Legati,  at  their  first  institution,  was  not  so 
much  to  command  as  to  advise;  the  senate  selecting  some  of  the 
oldest  and  most  prudent  members  to  assist  the  general  in  his  coun- 
cils. Dionysius  calls  this  *'  the  most  honourable  and  sacred  office 
among  the  Romans,  bearing  not  only  the  authority  of  a  commander, 
but,  withal,  the  sanctity  and  veneration  of  a  priest." '  And  he  and 
Polybius  give  them  no  other  name  than  n^^ar^vrai,  n^f^rtuTai  xut 
«-t^o8Ao/,  Elders,  or  Elders  and  Counsellors. 

They  were  chosen  commonly  by  the  Consuls;  the  authority  of 
the  senate  concurring  with  their  nomination;  though  this  was 
sometimes  slighted,  or  contradicted,  as  appears  from  Cicero,  in  his 
orations  for  Sextus,  and  against  Vatinius. 

They  commanded  in  chief  under  the  general,  and  managed  all 
aftairs  by  his  permission,  whence  Caesar  calls  their  power  opera 
/iduciuria.'  And  when  the  Consul  or  Proco»'sul  was  absent,  they 
hail  tfie  honour  to  use  the  fasceSy  and  were  intrusted  witii  the  same 
charge  as  the  officer  whom  they  represented. 

As  to  the  number  of  the  Legati,  we  have  no  certainty;  but  we  may 
suppose  this  to  have  depended  upon  the  pleasure  of  the  general,  and 
Vpon  the  nature  and  consequence  of  the  aftair  in  which  they  were 


"  Liv.  1.  43. 


« Idem,  I.  43. 


"^  Dionys.  Halicarn.  lib.  II. 


BeUo  Civil,  lib.  ?. 


r  f- 
r  S-' 


*  Ascon.  Pxdian.  in  Verrin* 


204 


OF  THi:    ROMAN 


ART  OF  WAR. 


205 


en^a^cil :  however,  we  have  tolerable  ground  to  assign  one  to  evei  \r 
legion. 

I'luler  the  emperors,  theie  were  two  sorts  of  Lea^atly  Consiflarcf; 
and  Pr£torii;  tlie  tirst  of  which  commanded  whole  armies,  as  the 
emperors'  lieutenant-generals ;  and  tiie  other  only  particular  legions. 

The  general  excel letl  all  other  officers,  not  onlv  because  he  had 
the  chief  command  of  the  whole  army,  horse  and  foot,  legions  and 
auxiliaries;  but  especially  as  he  was  allowed  the  uuf>picia,  or  the 
honour  of  taking  omens,  by  help  of  the  divines,  which  made  a  very 
solemn  ceremony  in  all  martial  expeditions.  Hence  they  were  said, 
gerere  ran  auia  aitupiciifi,  and  67^*6  divis ;  this  was  most  properly 
applied,  when  they  did  not  act  in  person;  as  Suetonius,  when  he 
reckons  up  the  conquests  of  Augustus,  expresses  himself,  Domuit 
iiulem,  part  nil  ductu,  partiin  auspiciis  suis,  t^'c.^ 

MachiaveP  highly  extols  the  wistiv)m  of  the  Romans  in  allowing 
iheirgeneralsunlimitedconimissions,  by  which  they  were  empowered 
to  fight  or  not  to  fight ;  to  assault  such  a  town,  or  to  march  another 
%vay,  w  ithoiit  controul ;  the  senate  reserving  to  themselves  onlv  the 
powei-  of  making  peace  and  decreeing  war,  unless  upon  extraordi- 
nary occasions.  This  w  as  several  times  the  cause  of  remarkable  vic- 
t<»ries,  that  in  all  probability  had  been  otherwise  prevented.  Thus, 
when  Fabius  Maxiinus  had  given  the  Tuscans  a  considerable  defeat 
at  8utrium,and  entered  on  a  resolution  to  pass  the  Ciminian  forest, 
a  very  dangerous  and  dillieult  adventure;  he  never  staid  to  expect 
larther  orders  from  Rome,  hut  immediately  marched  his  forces  into 
the  enemies'  country,  and,  at  the  other  side  of  the  forest,  gave  them 
a  total  overthrow.  In  the  mean  time,  the  senate,  fearing  he  might 
venture  on  such  an  hazardous  attempt,  .'^ent  the  Tribunes  of  the  com- 
mons, with  other  officers,  to  desire  Fabius  that  he  would  not  by  any 
means  think  of  such  an  enterprize ;  but  not  arriving  till  he  had  ef- 
lected  his  design,  instead  of  hindering  his  resolution,  they  returned 
home  with  the  joyful  news  of  his  success." 

The  setting  out  of  the  general  was  attended  with  great  pomp  and 
superstition.  The  public  prayers  and  sacrifices  for  his  success  being 
finished,  he,  habited  in  a  rich  pifludamcntw/i,  a  robe  of  purple  or  scar 
let,  interwoven  with  gold,  began  his  march  out  of  the  city,  accom- 
panied with  a  vast  retinue  of  all  sexes  and  ages;  especially,  if  the 
expedition  was  undertaken  against  any  potent  or  renowned  adver- 
sary;  all  persons  beiiigdesirous  to  see,  and  follow  with  their  wishes, 
him  on  whom  all  their  hopes  and  fortunes  depended. 

If  it  would  not  be  too  minute,  we  might  add  a  description  of  tiie 


s 


gcneraPs  led  horses,  with  their  rich  trappings  of  purple  and  cloth  of 
gold;  such  as  Dionysius  tells  us  they  brought  to  honest  Quintius 
the  Dictator,  in  lieu  of  those  he  had  left  with  his  plough  ;  or,  as  that 
of  Pompcy  the  Great,  which  Plutarch  mentions  to  have  been  taken 
by  the  enemy  in  the  w  ar  with  Sertorius. 

The  old  Romans  had  one  very  superstitious  fancy  in  reference  to 
the  general,  that  if  he  would  consent  to  be  devoted  or  sacrificed  to 
Jupiter,  Mars,  the  Earth,  and  the  infernal  gods,  all  the  misfortunes, 
which  otherwise  might  have  happened  to  his  party,  would,  by  virtue 
of  that  pious  act,  be  transferred  on  their  enemies.  This  opinion  was 
confirmed  by  several  successful  instances,  and  particularly  in  the 
most  renowned  family  of  the  JDecii ;  of  wJiom,  the  father,  son,  and 
grandson,  all  devoted  themselves  for  the  safety  of  their  armies.  The 
first,  being  consul  w^ith  Manlius,  in  the  war  against  the  Latins,  and 
perceiving  the  left  wing,  which  he  commanded,  to  give  way,  he 
(ailed  out  to  Valerius  the  high  priest  to  perform  on  him  the  cere- 
mony of  consecration,  (w  hich  we  find  described  by  Livy  in  his  eighth 
hook,)  and  immediately  spurred  his  horse  into  the  thickest  of  the 
enemies'  forces,  where  he  was  killed,  and  the  Roman  army  gained 
the  battle.  His  son  died  in  the  same  manner  in  the  Tuscan  war, 
and  his  grandson  in  the  war  with  Pyrrhus;  in  both  which,  the  Ro- 
mans were  successful.  Juvenal  has  left  them  this  deserved  enco- 
mium in  his  eighth  Satire,  254: 

Plebeix  Deciorum  animce^  plcbein  fuevunt 

JVomhia  ;  pro  totis  legionibus^  hi  taineii^  et  pro 

Ovmibus  auxilits,  atc/ve  omni  pxibe  LativUy 

Sujichmt  diif!  hifeniis  Terr<ieque  pare?iti  .- 

Pluris  eium  Decii  quam  qui  set-vajitnr  ab  illis. 

From  a  mean  stock  the  pious  Decii  came. 

Small  their  estates,  and  vulgar  was  tlieir  name  ; 

Yet  such  their  virtue,  that  their  loss  alone 

For  Rome  and  all  our  legions  could  atone : 

Their  country's  doom  they  by  their  own  retrieved  ; 

J'hemselves  more  worth  than  all  the  host  they  sav'd.    Stepxet. 


■28 


*  Suet,  in  \'\'^.  c.  21. 


Mucliinvel's  Discoui-sc  on  Liv 


•  J.iv.  lib.  V 


4 


20(> 


OF  Tin:   ROMAN 


CMAPTKU  IX. 

OF  THH  ROMAN'  ARMS  AND  WEAPONS. 

FOR  the  knowletlj^c  of  this  subject,  we  need  not  take  up  with  ihc 
common  division  into  oncnsivc  and  defensive,  but  rather  rank  them 
both  toi^ethcr,  as  they  belonged  to  the  several  sorts  of  soldiers  already 
dislini^uished. 

As  to  the  vc/iies,  their  arms  were  the  Spanish  swords,  which  the 
Konians  thought  of  the  best  shape  and  temper,  and  fittest  for  ex- 
ecution, being  something  like  the  Turkish  scimitars,  but  more  sharp 
at  the  point. 

Hastx^  or  javclinca^  seven  in  number  to  every  man,  very  light 
and  slender. 

Piunna^  a  kind  of  round  buckler,  three  feet  in  diameter,  of  wood, 
coveied  w  ith  leather. 

Galea^  or  Galtrus^  a  light  casque  for  their  head,  generally  made 
of  the  skin  of  some  wild  beast,  to  appear  the  niore  terrible.  Hence 
Virgil,  i£n.  vii.  688: 

Fulv'jsque  htpi  (If  pclle  galevus. 

and  Propcrtius,  1.  iv,  1 1.  20  : 

Et  ffalea  hirsufj  com/>ta  lulutia  jubd» 

It  seems  j^robable,  that  after  the  time  when  the  socii  were  admit- 
ted into  ilie  Roman  legions,  the  particular  order  of  the  velitea  was 
dis('ontinued,  and  some  of  the  youngest  soldiers  were  chosen  out 
\ipon  occasion  to  skirmish  before  the  main  body.  Hence  we  find 
among  the  light  forces  in  the  times  of  the  emperors,  the  sagittarii 
Viw(\  fund  it  ores  y  the  darters  and  slingers,  who  never  constituted  any 
part  of  the  proi)cr  vetites.  And  so,  before  the  institution  of  the  ve- 
litcsy  we  meet  Avith  the  rorarii^  whom  Suillust  calls  ferentariiy  who 
pcrforn)cd  the  same  duty,  with  several  sorts  of  weapons. 

Some  attribute  the  like  employment  to  xhc  accensi ;  but  these 
were  rather  supernumerary  recruits,  or  a  kind  of  Serjeants,  in  the 
more  ancient  armies. 

The  arms  of  the  hastati,  firirici/ics,  and  friarii,  were  in  a  great 
measure  the  same ;  and  therefore  Polybius  has  not  divided  them  in 
his  description,  but  speaks  of  them  altogether. 

Their  sword  was  the  same  as  that  of  the  vclKes ;  nor  need  we  ob- 
serve any  thing  more  about  it,  only  that  the  Roman  soldiers  used 


-'      '  ITTvXKIIlTa.  t'l-l^l^nTDT^  .:LiBC10r^'AIMUS  .Dr©  IMTJI.iITiES  rUMl^TTRr^'.-- 1 II  BJ'S. 


/"tMA,-./ Uf/tdjmm  .<//,,:  .rr./  /!'/ tli^nn/  Sf.  /^2'<*. 


ART  OF  WAR. 


20/ 


commonly  to  wear  it  on  the  right  side,  tliat  it  might  not  hinder  their 
shield,  though  they  are  often  represented  otherwise  in  ancient  mo- 
numents. 

Their  otlier  arms  worth  our  notice  were  the  scutum,  the  /lilumy 
the  galea,  and  the  torica. 

The  scutum  was  a  buckler  of  wood,  the  parts  being  joined  to- 
j^aihcr  with  little  plates  of  iron,  and  the  whole  covered  with  a  bull's 
hide;  an  iron  plate  went  about  it  without,  to  keep  ofi"  blows,  and 
another  within,  to  hinder  it  from  taking  any  damage  by  lying  on  the 
ground  ;  in  the  middle  was  an  umbo,  or  iron  boss  jutting  out,  very 
serviceable  to  glance  ofi*  stones  and  darts,  and  sometimes  to  press 
violently  upon  the  enemy,  and  drive  all  before  them.     They  are  to 
be  distinguished  from  the  clij/iei,  which  were  less,  and  quite  round, 
belonging  more  properly  to  other  nations  ;   though,  for  some  time, 
used   by  the  Romans.     The  scuta   themselves  were  of  two  kinds; 
the  ovata,  and  the  imbricata ;  the  former  is  a  plain  oval  figure;  the 
other  oblong,  and  bending  inward,  like  a  half  cylinder.     Polybius 
makes  the  ucutu  four  feet  long,  and   Plutarch   calls  them  arei^^j^f/?, 
reaching  down  to  the  feet/    And  it  is  very  probable,  that  they  co- 
vered almost  the  whole  body,  since  in  Livy  we  meet  with  soldiers 
who  stood  on  the  guard,  sometimes  sleeping  with  their  head  laid  on 
their  shield,  having  fixed  the  other  part  of  it  on  the  earth.^ 

The  fiilum  was  a  missive  weapon,  which,  in  a  charge,  they  darted 
at  the  enemy.  It  was  commonly  four  square,  but  sometimes  round, 
(uniposed  of  a  piece  of  wood  about  three  cubits  long,  and  a  slip  of 
iron  of  the  same  length,  hooked  and  jagged  at  the  end.  They  look 
abundance  of  care  in  joining  the  two  parts  together,  and  did  it  so 
artificially,  that  it  would  sooner  break  in  the  iron  itself  than  in  the 
joint.  Every  man  had  two  of  these  pila  j  and  this  number  the  poet 
alludes  to : 

Jiina  maun  lata  crispmis  hastUa  fcvvo.  Vino.  iEx.  1.  317. 

Qtije  tluo  aula  manu  gestans  acclivia  monti 

Fixcratf  intorqutt  jaciilu.  Statius,  Thebaid.  ii. 

C.  Marius,  in  the  Cimbrian  war,  contrived  these ////a  after  a  new 
icishion ;  for  before,  where  the  wood-way  joined  to  the  iron,  it  was 
made  fast  with  two  iron  pins ;  now  Marius  left  one  of  them  alone  as 
it  was,  and  pulling  out  the  other,  put  a  weak  wooden  peg  in  its  place; 
fontriving  it  so,  that,  when  it  was  struck  in  the  enemy's  shield,  it 
Jjhould  not  stand  outright  as  formerly:  but,  the  wooden  peg  break- 
ing, the  iron  should  bend,  and  so  the  javelin,  sticking  fast  by  its 
<:rooked  point,  should  weigh  down  the  shield.^ 


Pint,  in  iEmilio. 


^  I.iv,  lib  44 


-  TMutarch  in  Mario. 


208 


OF   Tin:  R0MA>3- 


The  gaita  wa!>  a  hcad-piccc,  or  inorrion,  coming  down  to  the 

shoulders,    commonly   of   brass ;    Ihougli   Plutarch    tells   us,    that 

Camillus  ordered   ihusc  of  liis  army  to  be  iron,  as  the   stroni^ci- 

metal. y    The  lower  part  of  this  they  called  biiccula^  as  we  have  it  in 

Juvenal  : 

Fracta  (U:  cd.ssiilc  buccuJn  ftmilcnrs.  Sat.  x.  13-t. 

A  chap-fall'n  beaver  loosely  haiigiiig  by 
The  cloven  helm. 

On  the  toj)  was  the  crifita,  or  crest;  in  adornini^  of  which  the  sol- 
diers took  j^reat  pride.  In  the  time  of  Polybius  they  wore  plumes 
of  feathers  dyed  of  various  colours,  to  render  themselves  beautiful  to 
their  friends,  and  terrible  to  their  enemies,  as  the  Turks  do  at  pre- 
sent. But  in  most  of  the  old  monuments  wc  find  the  crests  reprc- 
sented  otherwise,  and  not  much  different  from  those  on  the  top  of 
our  modern  head-pieces.  Virgil  mentions  the  feathers  on  a  parti- 
cular occasion  : 

Cttju.^  uioiuuL  ■■^iiijitiii  ilv  vi'itice peniiiV.     uKs.  x.  187. 

And  he  describes  Mczentius's  crest  as  made  of  a  horse's  mane : 

Cvistaque  hirsutus  equina.     Ms.  \.  8G9. 

But,  whatever  the  common  soldiers  had  for  their  crest,  those  of 
the  officers  were  more  splendid  and  curious  ;  bcini^  usually  worked 
in  gold  or  silver,  and  reaching  quite  across  the  helmet  for  distinc- 
tion-sake. If  wc  might  speak  of  those  of  foreign  commanders,  the 
crest  of  king  Pyrrhus,  as  very  singular,  would  deserve  our  remark ; 
which  Plutarch  describes  as  made  of  two  goats'  horns.* 

The  lorica  was  a  briganlitic  or  coat  of  mail,  generally  made  of 
leather,  and  worked  over  with  little  hooks  of  iron,  and  sometimes 
adorned  with  small  scales  of  thin  gold  ;  as  we  find  in  Virgil : 

JLoricutn  canscrtivn  hamis,     itir,  iii,  467. 
and, 

JVcc  duplici  squama  hrica  fnhih  et  auro.     A^.s.  \\.  707. 

Sometimes  the  ioricw  were  a  sort  of  linen  cassocks,  such  as  Sue- 
tonius attributes  to  Galba,  and  like  that  of  Alexander  in  Plutarch; 
or  those  of  the  Spanish  troops  described  by  Polybius  in  his  account 
of  the  battle  of  Cannx. 

The  poorer  soldiers,  who  were  rated  under  a  thousand  drachms, 
instead  of  this  briganiine,  wore  a  Pcctoratc^ov  breast-plate,  of  thin 
brass,  about  twelve  fingers  stjuare;  and  this,  with  what  has  already 
been  described,  rendered  them  completely  armed  ;  unless  we  add 
ocrca:,  or  greaves,  which  they  wore  on  their  legs;  which  perhaps 


t-^lutaich.  hi  Camill. 


''■  Idem,  in  Pyrrho. 


V 


ART  OF  WAR 


209 


ihcy  borrowed  (as  many  other  customs)  from  the   Grecians,  so 
well  known  by  the  title  of 

In  the  elder  times  of  the  Romans,  their  horse  used  only  a  round 
shield,  with  a  helmet  on  their  head,  and  a  couple  of  javelins  in  their 
hands ;  great  part  of  their  body  being  left  without  defence.  But  as 
soon  as  they  found  the  great  inconveniences  to  which  they  were 
jierchy  exposed,  they  began  to  arm  themselves  like  the  Grecian 
horse,  or  much  like  their  own  foot,  only  their  shield  was  a  little 
shorter  and  squarcr,  and  their  lance  or  javelin  thicker,  with  spikes 
at  each  end,  that  if  one  miscarried  the  other  might  be  serviceable. 


CHAPTER  X. 

THE  ORDER  OF  iHE  ROMAX  ARMV  DRAWN  UP  IX  BATFALIA. 

WHEN  the  oflicers  marshalled  the  army  in  order  to  an  engage- 
ment, the  hastati  were  placed  in  the  front  in  thick  and  firm  ranks; 
[he  firinci/ies  behind  them,  but  not  altogether  so  close;  and  after 
them  the  iriarii,  in  so  wide  and  loose  an  order,  that,  upon  occasion, 
they  could  receive  both  the  f/rinci/ics  and  the  hastati  into  their  body 
in  any  distress.     The  velitcs^  and  in  later  times  the  bowmen  and 
slingers,  were  not  drawn  up  in  this  regular  manner,  but  disposed  of 
either  l)efore   the  front  of  the  hastati^  or  scattered  up  and  down 
among  the  void  spaces  of  the  same  hastati,  or  sometimes  placed  in 
two  bodies  in  the  wings;  but  wherever  they  were  fixed,  these  light 
soldiers  began   the  combat,  skirmishing  in  flying  parties  with  the 
first  troops  of  the  enemy.     If  they  prevailed,  which  very  seldom 
happened,  they  prosecuted  the  victory  ;  but  upon  a  repulse  they  fell 
i)uck  by  the  fianks  of  the  army,  or  rallied  again  in  the  rear.     When 
ihey  were  retired,  the  hastati  advanced  against  the  enemy;  and  in 
case  they  found  themselves  overpowered,  retiring  softly  towards  the 
tirinci/ies^  fell  into  the  intervals  of  their  ranks,  and,  together  with 
them,  renewed  the  fight.     But  if  the  firincifies  and  the  hastati  thus 
joined  were  too  weak  to  sustain  the  fury  of  the  battle,  they  all  fell 
'jack  into  the  wider  intervals  of  the  triarii ;  and  then  all  together 
being  united  into  a  f»rm  mass,  they  made  another  effort,  much  more 
impetuous  than  any  before :   If  this  assult  proved  ineffectual,  the  day 
^^as  entirely  lost,  as  to  the  foot,  there  beint';  no  farther  reserves. 


J 


I 


210 


01    THE  ROMAN 


ART  or   WAR. 


This  way  of  marbhalliii.;^^  the  foot  was  exactly  'ik*^  the  order  oi 

trees  which  gardeners  call  the  Quincunx  ;  which  is  admirably  com 

])arcd  to  it  in  Virgil  :■ 

Ut  Si^lw  in'^reiiti  bellu  citni  lon^a  co/iovtea 
F.rplicuit  If'jio,  ei  campo  stetit  a[jmcn  apevto ; 
JJirectiffjue  acieit^  ac  latcjlnctnat  omnis 
c^re  retiiilenti  teUus,  ut^cdum  horrida  miscent 
Praliii^  sed  dubina  mcdiia  JVlarn  errat  in  arniis  ': 
Omnia  sint  paribus  tninicrift  dimeiisa  Tiavutu  ,- 
JVon  anijinon  modo  nti  pascat  prosjieclus  inavem  ,- 
Scd  quia  non  alitev  vires  dabit  omnibwi  cvfjuaa 
Ttrra,  neqne  in  vacuum  poterunt  se  ejcteudfire  ram. 

As  leg-ioiis  In  the  field  their  front  display, 

T'o  try  the  tbrtune  of  some  douhtful  day. 

And  move  to  meet  their  foes  with  sober  pace, 

.Strict  to  their  figure,  thoii,i^)\  in  wider  space, 

IJeforc  the  battle  joins,  wliilc  from  afar 

Tlie  field  yet  glitters  with  the  pomp  of  war; 

And  e(jiial  Mars,  like  an  impartial  lord, 

T -eaves  all  to  fortiine,  and  the  dint  of  sword; 

So  let  thy  vines  in  intervals  be  set, 

IJut  not  their  jural  discipline  forget: 

Indulge  their  width,  and  add  a  roomy  space, 

That  their  extremest  lines  may  scarce  embrace. 

Xor  this  alone  t*  indulge  a  vast  delight, 

And  make  a  pleasing  prospect  for  the  sight: 

IJut  for  the  ground  itself,  this  oidy  way 

(Jan  e(pial  vigour  to  the  plants  <*onvey, 

Whicii  crowded,  want  the  room  their  branches  to  disj)lay. 

DUVDEX. 

And  as  the  reason  of  that  position  of  the  trees  is  not  only  for 
beauty  and  figure,  but  that  every  particular  tree  may  have  room 
to  spread  its  roots  and  boughs,  without  entangling  and  hindering 
the  rest ;  so  in  this  ranking  of  the  men,  the  army  was  not  only  set 
out  to  the  best  advantage,  and  made  the  greatest  show,  but  every 
particular  soldier  had  free  room  to  use  his  weapons,  and  to  with- 
draw himself  between  the  void  spaces  behind  him,  without  occa- 
sioning any  confusion  or  disturbance. 

The  stratagem  of  rallying  thus  three  times,  has  been  reckoned 
almost  the  whole  art  and  secret  of  the  Roman  discipline ;  and  it  was 
almost  impossible  it  should  prove  unsuccessful,  if  duly  observed; 
for  fortune,  in  every  engagement,  must  have  failed  them  three  seve- 
ral times,  before  they  could  be  routed ;  and  the  enemy  must  have 
had  the  stniigih  and  resolution  to  overcome  them  in  three  several 
encounters,  for  the  decision  of  one  battle  ;  whereas  most  other  na- 
tions, and  even  the  Grecians  themselves,  drew  up  their  whole  army, 
as  it  were,  in  one  front,  trusting  themselves  and  fortunes  to  the  suc- 
cess of  a  single  charge. 

The  Roman  cavalry  was  posted  at  the  two  corners  of  the  army, 
like  the  wings  on  a  body,  and  fought  sometimes  on  foot,  sometimes 

*  (Jeorg.  ii.  '279. 


211 


on  horseback,  as  occasion  required,  in  the  same  manner  as  our  dra- 
goons; the  confederate,  or  auxiliary  "orces,  composed  the  two  points 
of  the  battle,  and  covered  the  wliole  body  of  the  Romans. 

As  to  the  stations  of  the  commanders,  the  general  commonly  took 
up  his  post  near  the  middle  of  the  army,  between  the  /irinci/ies  and 
the  triarii^  as  the  fittest  place  to  give  orders  equally  to  all  the  troops. 
Thus  Virgil  disposes  of  Turnus  : 

JMedin  dux  aq-mine  Turnus 

Vei'tituv  anna  tenens. jEv.  Ix.  28. 

The  Le^rati  and  Tribunes  were  usually  posted  by  him  ;  unless 
the  Fornier  were  ordered  to  command  the  wings,  or  the  others  some 
particular  part  of  the  army. 

The  Centurions  stood  every  man  at  the  head  of  his  century  to 
lead  them  up;  though  sometimes,  out  of  courage  and  honour,  they 
exposed  themselves  in  the  van  of  the  army;  as  Sallust  reports  of 
Catiline,  that  he  posted  all  his  choice  Centurions,  with  the  Evocati, 
and  the  flower  of  the  common  soldiers,  in  the  front  of  the  battle. 
IJut  the  Primifiili  or  chief  Centurions,  had  the  honour  to  stand  with 
the  Tribunes  near  the  general's  person. 

The  common  soldiers  were  placed  in  several  ranks,  at  the  discre- 
tion of  the  Centurions,  according  to  their  age,  strength  and  experi- 
ence, every  man  having  three  feet  square  allowed  him  to  manage 
hib  arms  in  ;  and  it  was  most  religiously  observed  in  their  discipline, 
never  to  abandon  their  ranks,  or  break  their  order,  upon  any  ac- 
count. 

But  besides  the  common  methods  of  drawing  up  this  army,  which 
are  sufBciently  explained  by  every  historian  of  any  note,  there  were 
bcvcral  other  very  singular  methods  of  forming  their  battle  into 
odd  shapes,  according  to  the  nature  of  the  enemy's  body. 

Such  as  the  cunciis;  wlien  an  army  was  ranged  in  the  figure  of  a 
wedge,  the  most  proper  to  pierce  and  break  the  order  of  the  enemy. 
This  was  otherwise  called  ca/int  /iorcinu??i,  which  in  some  measure 
it  resembled. 

The  globus;  when  the  soldiers  cast  themselves  into  a  firm,  round 
body,  practised  usually  in  cases  of  extremity. 

The  forfcr,  an  army  drawn  up  as  it  were  into  the  form  of  a  pair 
of  sheers.  It  seems  to  have  been  invented  on  purpose  to  receive 
the  cuneus^  in  case  the  enemy  should  make  use  of  that  figure.  For 
while  he  endeavoured  to  open,  and,  as  it  were,  to  cleave  their 
squadrons  w^ith  his  wedge,  by  keeping  their  troops  open  like  their 
iilieers,  and  receiving  him  in  the  middle,  they  not  only  hindered 
the  damage  designed  to  their  own  men,  but  commonly  cut  the  ad- 
verse body  in  pieces. 


OF  THE  ROMAN 


ART  OF  WAR. 


213 


'^ 


The  serroy  an  oMong  square  figure,  after  ihc  fashion  of  a  towef, 
with  very  few  men  in  a  file,  and  the  files  extended  to  great  length. 
This  seems  of  very  ancient  original,  as  being  mentioned  in  Homer: 

Ot  Si  Ti    Tru^fytJ^^v  a-^fug  olvthc  u^Tvv:tVTtc,  Iliad.  /u.  43. 

The  scrra,  or  saw,  when  the  first  companies  in  the  front  of  the 
array,  beginning  the  engagement,  sometimes  proceeded,  and  some- 
times drew  back;  so  that,  by  the  help  of  a  large  fancy,  one  might 
find  some  resemblance  between  them  and  the  teeth  of  that  instru- 
ment. 


CHAPTER  Xr. 

lilE    i^NSIGNS    AND    COLOURS;    THK    MUSIC;    THE    WORD    IN    ENGAGE- 
MENTS;   THE  HARANGUES   OF  THE  GENERAL. 

THI^RK  arc  several  things  still  behind,  relating  to  tlie  army, 
very  observable,  before  we  come  to  the  camp  and  discipline ;  such 
as  the  ensign,  the  music,  the  word  or  sign  in  engagements,  and  the 
harangues  of  the  general. 

As  to  the  ensigns,  they  were  cither  proper  to  the  foot,  or  to  the 
horse.  Ensigns  belonging  to  the  foot,  were  either  the  common  one 
of  the  whole  legion,  or  the  particular  ones  of  the  several  juanijiuli. 

The  common  ensign  of  the  whole  legion  was  an  eagle  of  gold  or 
silver,  fixed  on  the  top  of  a  spear,  holding  a  thunderbolt  in  her  ta- 
lons, as  ready  to  deliver  it.  That  this  was  not  peculiar  to  the  Ro- 
mans, is  evident  from  the  testimony  of  Xenophon  ;  who  informs  us, 
that  the  royal  ensign  of  Cyrus  was  a  golden  eagle  spread  over  a 
shield,  and  fastened  on  a  spear;  and  that  the  same  was  still  used 
by  the  Persian  kings. ^ 

What  the  ensigns  of  the  manifiuli  formerly  were,  the  very  words 
point  out  to  us ;  for  as  Ovid  expresses  it ;  | 

Portica  sufpmsoa  portabnt  longa  ynaniplos, 
Untie  maniplans  nomina  miles  hahet. 

ATanifiulus  properly  signifies  a  wisp  of  hay,  such  as  in  ruder 
times  the  soldiers  carried  on  a  pole  for  an  ensign. 

But  this  was  in  the  rustic  age  of  Rome ;  afterwards  they  made 
use  of  a  spear  with  a  transverse  piece  on  the  top,  almost  like  a 
cross;  and  sometimes  with  a  hand  on  the  top,  in  allusion  to  mani- 

b  De  Instlt.  Cyri,  lib.  7. 


fiuliis  ;  below  the  transverse  part  was  fastened  one  little  orbicular 
shield,  or  more,  in  which  they  sometimes  placed  the  smaller  images 
of  the  gods,  and  in  later  times,  of  the  emperors. 

Augustus  ordered  a  globe  fastened  on  the  head  of  a  spear  to  serve 
ibr  this  use,  in  token  of  the  conquest  of  the  whole  world. 

The  ensign  of  the  horse  was  not  solid  as  the  others,  but  a  cloth, 
almost  like  our  colours,  spreading  on  a  staiT.  On  these  were  com- 
monly the  names  of  the  emperors,  in  golden  or  purple  letters. 

The  religious  care  the  soldiers  took  of  the  ensigns  was  extraor- 
dinary ;  they  worshipped  them,  swore  by  them,  and  incurred  certain 
death  if  they  lost  them.  Hence  it  was  an  usual  stratagem  in  a 
dubious  engagement,  for  the  commanders  to  snatch  the  ensigns  out 
of  the  bearer's  hands,  and  throw  them  among  the  troops  of  the 
enemy,  knowing  that  their  men  would  venture  the  extremest  dan- 
i^cr  to  recover  them. 

As  for  the  several  kinds  of  standards  and  banners  introduced  by 
tlje  later  emperors,  just  before  Christianity,  and  afterwards,  they  do 
not  fall  under  the  present  enquiry,  which  is  confined  to  the  more 
flourishing  and  vigorous  ages  of  the  commonwealth. 

The  Romans  used  only  wind-music  in  their  army ;  the  instru- 
ments which  served  for  that  purpose  may  be  distinguished  into  the 
tubxy  the  cornua^  the  bucciiKS^  and  the  litui. 

The  tuba  is  supposed  to  have  been  exactly  like  our  trumpet, 
running  on  wider  and  wider  in  a  direct  line  to  the  orifice. 

The  corniia  were  bent  almost  round;  they  owe  their  name  and 
original  to  the  horns  of  beasts,  put  to  the  same  use  in  the  ruder 
ages. 

The  buccina  seem  to  have  had  the  same  rise,  and  may  derive 
their  name  from  bus  and  cano.  It  is  very  hard  to  distinguish  these 
from  the  cornua^  unless  they  were  something  less,  and  not  quite  so 
crooked;  yet  it  is  most  certain  that  they  were  of  a  different  species; 
because  we  never  read  of  the  cornua  in  use  with  the  watch  or  sen- 
tinels, but  only  these  buccina:. 

The  Htui  were  a  middle  kind  between  the  cormia  and  the  tub^e^ 
being  almost  straight,  only  a  little  turning  in  at  the  top  like  the 
lituusy  or  sacred  rod  of  the  Augurs,  whence  they  borrowed  their 
name. 

These  instruments  being  all  made  of  brass,  the  players  on  them 
•vent  under  the  name  of  aneatores^  besides  the  particular  terms  of 
'iibicinesy  cornicines^  buccinatores,  8cc. ;  and  there  seems  to  have 
been  a  set  number  assigned  to  every  mani/iulus  and  tur?na  ;  besides 
several  of  a  higher  order,  and  common  to  the  whole  legion.  In  a 
battle,  the  former  took  their  station  by  the  ensign  or  colours  of  their 

29 


214 


Oi    TIIJL  ROM  AT. 


ART  OF  WAR. 


215 


particular  company  or  troop  ;  the  others  stood  near  the  cliiei'  ca^l^ 
in  a  ring,  hard  by  the  general  and  prime  officers;  and  when  the  alarm 
was  to  be  given,  at  the  word  of"  the  general,  these  latter  began  it,  and 
were  followed  by  the  common  sound  of  the  rest,  dispersed  through 
the  several  parts  of  the  army.  I 

Besides  this  c/assicum,  or  alarm,  the  soldiers  gave  a  general  shout 
at  the  first  encounter,'^  which  in  latter  ages  they  called  iarriius,  from 
a  German  original. 

This  custom  seems  to  have  risen  from  an  instinct  of  nature,  and 
is  attributed  almost  to  all  nations  that  engaged  in  any  martial  action ; 
as  by  Homer  to  the  Trojans;  by  Tacitus  to  the  Germans;  by  Livy 
to  the  (iauls;  by  Quintus  Curtius  to  the  Macedonians  and  Per- 
sians ;  by  Thucydides,  Plutarch,  and  other  authors,  to  the  Grecians. 
Polyxnus  honours  Pan  with  the  invention  of  the  device,  when  he 
was  lieutcnaDt-gcneral  to  Bacchus  in  the  Indian  expedition  ;  and  it 
so,  we  have  a  very  good  original  for  the  terrores  /lanici,  or  panic 
fears,  which  might  well  be  the  consequence  of  such  a  dismal  and 
surprising  clamour.  The  Romans  made  one  addition  to  this  cus- 
tom, at  the  same  time  clashing  their  arms  with  great  violence,  to 
improve  the  strength  and  terror  of  the  noise.  This  t'lcy  called 
concuft'io  armorinn.  i 

Our  famous  Milton  has  given  us  a  noble  de^icription  of  't,  as  used 

by  the  rebel  angels  after  their  leader's  speech  for  the  renewing  ol 

the  war  : 

He  spake :  and  to  confirm  his  words,  out  flew 
MiUions  of  flaming  swords,  drawn  from  the  thighs 
Ofmig-hty  cherubims;  the  sudden  blaze 
Var  round  illumined  heli :   Migidy  they  rag'd 
Aj^-ainst  the  Highest,  and  tierce  with  grasped  arms, 
Clash'd  on  their  sounding  shields  the  din  of  war, 
Hurling  defiance  tow'rd  the  vault  of  Heaven.  | 

Parad.  Lost,  B.  l.j 

The  signs  of  battle,  besides  the  classicujn^  were  cither  a  flag  or 
standard,  erected  for  that  purpose,  which  Plutarch,  in  two  several 
places,  calls  a  purple  robe;  or  more  properly,  some  word  or  sen- 
tence communicated  by  the  general  to  the  chief  officers,  and  Dy  them 
to  the  whole  army.  This  commonly  contained  some  good  omen; 
as,  Ffiicitas,  Libcrtas,  Victoria^  Fortium  Casaris,  and  the  like;  or 
-else  the  name  of  some  deity,  as  Julius  Caesar  used  Fenus  Gtnetrix; 
and  Augustus  J/iollo.  The  old  tessera^  put  to  this  use,  seems  to 
have  been  a  sort  of  tally  delivered  to  every  soldier,  to  distinguish 
him  from  the  enemy ;  and  perhaps,  on  that  they  used  to  inscribe 
some  particular  word  or  sentence,  which  afterwards  they  made  use 
of  without  the  tally. 

GeU.  Noct.  Attic.  lib.  1,  cap.  11 


One  great  encouragement,  which  the  soldiers  received  in  their 
entrance  on  any  adventure,  was  from  the  harangue  of  the  general; 
who,  upon  the  undertaking  an  enterprise,  had  a  throne  erected  with 
green  turf,  surrounded  with  ihc  yusccs,  ensigns,  and  other  military 
ornaments;  from  whence  he  addressed  himself  to  the  army,  put 
them  in  mind  of  the  noble  achievements  of  their  ancestors,  told 
them  their  own  strength,  and  explained  to  them  the  order  and  force 
of  the  enemy;  raising  their  hopes  with  the  glorious  rewards  of  ho- 
nour and  victory,  and  dissipating  their  fears  by  all  the  arguments 
that  a  natural  courage  and  eloquence  could  suggest ;  this  was  termed 
allocutio.  Which  custom,  though  now  laid  aside  as  antiquated  and 
useless,  yet  is  highly  commended  in  the  ancient  discipline,  and, 
without  doubt,  has  been  often  the  cause  of  extraordinary  successes, 
and  the  means  of  stifling  sedition,  hindering  rash  action,  and  pre* 
venting  many  unfortunate  disorders  in  the  held. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

THE  FORM  AND  DIVISION  OF  THE  ROMAN  CAMP. 

IHE  Romans  were  more  exact  in  nothing  than  in  forming  their 
ramp ;  and  two  very  great  commanders,  Philip  of  Macedon  and 
king  Pyrrhus,  upon  view  of  their  admirable  order  and  contrivance 
herein,  are  reported  to  have  expressed  the  greatest  admiration  ima- 
ginable of  the  Roman  art,  and  to  have  thought  them  more  than  bar- 
barians, as  the  Grecians  termed  all  people  besides  themselves. 

Before  we  take  a  particular  prospect  of  the  camp,  we  had  best 
distinguish  between  the  caatra  <iestiva^  and  castra  hyberna ;  the 
former  were  sometimes  light  and  moveable,  so  that  they  might  be 
set  up  or  taken  down,  in  a  night ;  and  then  they  called  them  simply 
caatra.  At  other  times,  when  they  designed  to  continue  long  in 
their  encampments,  they  took  more  pains  to  fortify  and  regulate 
ihem,  for  the  convenience  and  defence  of  their  men  ;  and  then  they 
termed  them  castra  stativa. 

As  for  the  hyberna^  or  winter-quarters,  they  \,  ere  commonly  taken 

up  in  some  city  or  town,  or  else  so  built  and  contrived  as  to  make 

almost  a  town  of  themselves.     And  hence  the  antiquarians  observe, 

that  the  modern  towns  whose  names  end  in  cester  were  originally 

•lese  castra  hyberna  of  the  Romans. 

The  figure  of  the  Rom^n  camp  was  four-square,  divided  into  two 


216 


OF   TIIK    ROM  AN 


ART  OF  WAR. 


21 


V, 

i 


chief  partitions,  the  upper  and  the  lower.  In  the  upper  partition, 
were  the  pavilion  of  the  general  and  the  lodgments  of  the  chief 
officers;  in  the  lower  were  disposed  the  tents  of  the  common  sol- 
diers, horse  and  fool. 

Tlve  general's  apartment,  which  they  called  Pratorium  (because 
the  ancient  Latins  styled  all  their  commanders  J'nctoreJi)  seems  to 
have  been  of  a  round  figure  ;  the  chief  parts  of  it  were  the  tribunal, 
or  general's  pavilion  ;  the  autrurutc  set  aside  for  prayers,  sacrifices, 
and  other  religious  uses;  the  apartments  of  the  young  noblemen, 
who  came  under  the  care  of  the  general,  to  inform  themselves  in 
the  nature  of  the  countries,  and  to  gain  some  experience  in  military 
affairs;  these  gentlemen  had  the  honourable  title  of  Imjicratorv.^ 
C  on  tu  he  males. 

On  the  right  side  of  the  Prxtoriiun  stood  the  Quxatoriiim^  as- 
signed to  the  Quastor,  or  treasurer  of  the  army,  and  hard  by  the 
Forum  J  serving  not  only  for  the  sale  of  commodities,  but  also  for 
the  meeting  of  councils,  and  giving  audience  to  ambassadors.  This 
is  sometimes  called  Quintaua. 

On  the  other  side  of  the  Prcctorium  were  lodged  the  I^ri^ati,  or 
lieutenant-generals:  and  below  the  Prutorium,  the  Tribunes  took 
up  their  (luartcrs  by  six  and  six,  opposite  to  their  proper  legions,  to 
the  end  they  might  l>etter  govern  and  inspect  them. 

The  Prjfcrti  of  the  foreign  troops  were  lodged  at  the  sides  of 
the  Tribunes,  over  against  their  respective  wings;  behind  these 
were  the  lodgments  of  the  evocari,  and  then  those  of  the  extraordi- 
narii  and  abiccii  njuiles,  which  concluded  the  higher  part  of  the 
camp. 

Between  the  two  partitions  was  included  a  spot  of  ground  about 
an  hundred  feet  in  length,  which  they  called  firinciftiay  where  the 
altars  and  statues  of  the  gods,  and  (perhaps)  the  chief  ensigns,  were 
fixed  all  together. 

The  middle  of  the  lower  partition,  as  the  most  honourable  place, 
was  assigned  to  the  Roman  horse;  and  next  to  them  were  quartered 
the  triariiy  then  the  firinci/ies  ;  close  by  them  X.\\g  hastati,  after- 
wards the  foreign  horse ;  and  in  the  last  place  the  foreign  foot. 

But  the  form  and  dimensions  of  the  camp  cannot  be  so  well  de- 
scribed any  other  way,  as  in  a  table  where  they  are  exposed  to  view. 
However,  we  may  remark  two  great  pieces  of  policy  in  the  way  of 
disposing  the  confederates;  for  in  the  first  place,  they  divided  the 
whole  body  of  foreigners,  placing  part  in  the  highest  partition  of  the 
camp,  and  part  in  the  lower;  and  then  the  matter  was  ordered,  so 
that  they  should  be  spread  in  thin  ranks,  round  the  troops  of  the 
state;  so  that  the  latter,  possessing  the  middle  space,  remained  firm 


and  solid,  while  the  others  were  masters  of  very  little  strength,  being 
separated  at  so  vast  a  distance  from  one  another,  and  lying  just  on 
the  skirts  of  the  army. 

The  I^omans  fortified  their  camp  with  a  ditch  and  parapet,  which 
they  termed /o*^a  and -j^a/Ze/m:  In  the  last  some  distinguish  two 
parts,  the  atrtrer  and  the  sudtfi.  The  airgcr  was  no  more  than  the 
earth  cast  up  from  the  vallum  ;  and  the  ft^idrft  were  a  sort  of  wooden 
stakes,  to  secure  and  strengthen  it. 


CHAPTER  XI 11. 

OF  THE  DUTIES,   WORKS,  AND   EXERCISES   OF  THE  SOLDIERS. 

Till',  duties  and  works  of  the  soldiers  consisted  chiefly  in  their 
watches  and  guards,  and  their  diligence  in  casting  up  entrench- 
ments and  ramparts,  and  such  other  laborious  services. 

The  watches  and  guards  were  divided  into  the  excubide  and  the 
vigilia: ;  the  first  kept  by  day,  and  the  other  by  night. 

As  to  the  cxcubix^  they  were  kept  either  in  the  camp,  or  at  the 
gates  and  entrenchments.  For  the  former,  there  was  allowed  a 
whole  manifiulus  to  attend  before  the  Prxtorium  ;  and  four  soldiers 
to  the  tent  of  every  Tribune. 

The  triarii,  as  the  most  honourable  order,  were  excused  from  the 
ordinary  watches,  yet  being  placed  exactly  opposite  to  the  eguites^ 
ihey  were  obliged  to  have  an  eye  over  their  horses. 

The  ercubia,  at  the  gates  of  the  camp,  and  at  the  entrenchments, 
they  properly  called  etationes.  There  seems  to  have  been  assigned 
one  company  of  foot,  and  one  troop  of  horse,  to  each  of  the  four 
gates  every  day.  And  it  was  a  most  unpardonable  crime  to  desert 
their  post,  or  abandon  their  corps  of  guards.  The  excellency  of  the 
Homan  discipline,  in  this  particular,  has  appeared  on  many  occa- 
sions, to  their  great  honour,  and  to  the  benefit  of  their  affairs.  To 
give  one  instance:  At  the  siege  of  Agrigentum  in  Sicily,  in  the 
first  Punic  war,  when  the  Roman  guards  had  dispersed  themselves 
abroad  a  little  farther  than  they  ought  into  the  fields  for  forage; 
and  the  Carthaginians  laying  hold  on  the  opportunity,  made  a  vigor- 
ous sally  from  the  town,  and  in  all  probability  would  have  forced  the 
camp;  the  soldiers,  who  had  carelessly  neglected  their  duty,  being 
sensible  of  the  extreme  penalty  they  had  incurred,  resolved  to  repair 


218 


OF  THL  HOMA^ 


ART  or   WAR. 


219 


« 


*» 


the  fault  hy  some  remarkable  beliaviour;  and  accordinj^ly  rally  iiij 
togcllier,  ihcy  not  only  sustained  the  shock  of  the  enemy,  to  whoin 
they   were  far  inferior  in  number,  but  in  the  end  made  so  great  a 
slaughter  among  them,  as  compelled  them  to  retreat  to  their  works, 
when  ihey  had  well  nigh  forced  the  Roman  lines.** 

The  night-guards,  assigned  to  the  general  and  Tribunes,  were  ol 
the  same  nature  as  those  in  the  day.  But  the  proper  vigiieM  wen 
four  in  every  mauifiuluft^  keeping  guard  three  hours  and  then  re- 
licvcd  by  fours;  so  that  there  were  four  sets  in  a  night,  accordinj; 
to  the  four  watches,  which  took  their  name  from  this  custom. 

The  way  of  setting  this  nightly  guard,  was  by  a  tally  or  tessera, 
with  a  particular  inscription  given  from  one  centurion  to  another, 
fjuile  through  the  army,  till  it  came  again  to  the  Tribnne  who  at 
first  delivered  it.  Upon  the  receipt  of  this,  the  guard  was  imme- 
diately set.  The  person  deputed  to  carry  the  tessera  from  the  Tri 
bunes  to  the  centurions,  was  called  tesserarius. 

Hut,  because  this  was  not  a  sufficient  regulation  of  the  business, 
they  had  the  circuit io  vigilum^  or  a  visiting  the  watch,  performed 
<  ommonly  about  four  times  in  the  night,  by  some  of  the  horse. 
Upon  extraordinary  occasions,  the  Tribunes  and  lieutenant-gene 
rals,  and  sometimes  the  general  himself,  made  these  circuits  in  per- 
son, and  took  a  strict  view  of  the  watch  in  every  part  of  the  camp 
Livy,'  when  he  takes  an  occasion  to  compare  the  Macedonians 
with  the  Roman  soldiers,  gives  the  latter  the  preference,  particu- 
larly for  their  unwearied  labour  and  patience  in  carrying  on  their 
works.     And   that  this  was  no  mean  encomium,  appears  from  the 
character  Polybius'  has  bestowed  on  the  Macedonians,  that  scarce 
any  people  endured  hardships  better,  or  were  more  patient  of  la- 
bour; whether  in  their  fortifications  or  encampments,  or  in  any 
other  painful  and  hardy  employment  incident  to  the  life  of  a  soldier 
There  is  no  way  of  showing  the  excellency  of  the  Romans  in  this 
affair,  but  by  giving  some  remarkable  instances  of  the  military 
works;  and  we  may  be  satisfied  with  an  account  of  some  of  them 
which  occur  under  the  conduct  of  Julius  Cxsar. 

When  he  besieged  a  town  of  the  Atuatici  in  Gallia,  he  begirt  it 
with  a  rampart  of  twelve  feet  high,  and  as  many  b'  oad,  strengthen- 
ing it  with  a  vast  number  of  wooden  forts;  the  whole  compass  in- 
cluded fifteen  miles;  and  all  this  he  finished  wiih  such  wonderful 
expedition,  that  the  enemy  were  obliged  to  confess,  they  thought 
the  Romans  were  assisted  in  these  attempts  by  some  supernatural 
or  divine  power. ^ 


Vt  another  time,  in  an  expedition  against  the  llelvctii  in  the  same 
.  ountry,  with  the  assistance  only  of  one  legion,  and  some  provincial 
soldiers,  he  raised  a  wall  nineteen  miles  lon;.^,  and  sixteen  feet  high, 
with  a  ditch  proportionable  to  defend  il.*' 

More  remarkable  than  either  of  tiiese  were  his  fortifications  be- 
fore Alesia  or  Alexia,  in  IJurgundy,  dcbcribed  by  himself  at  large 
in  his  seventh  book;  by  which  he  protected  his  army  against  four- 
score thousand  men  that  were  in  the  town,  and  two  hundred  anc' 
forty  thousand  fool,  and  eight  thousand  horse,  that  were  arrived  to 
the  assistance  of  the  enemy.' 

But  his  most  wonderful  performance,  of  this  nature,  were  the 

works  with  which  he  shut  up  Pompey  and  his  army  in  Dyrrachium, 

reaching  from  sea  to  sea ;  which  are  thus  elegantly  described  by 

Lucan,  Lib.  vi.  38: 

Fravff\intur  montes,  plnniimqnc  per  mdna  C,E:^ar 
Dncit  opus  :  pfiTidit  fo^ftaSf  [urntaf/ue  fiinnmit 
Disponit  caatetla  jii^iSy  ma^noquf.  recessu 
^implexiis  Jinesy  naltuftf  nemoroscque  tesqna, 
Et  silvasy  vastaqiit  feran  indagijie  claudit  .• 
JSi'on  dep.nnt  campif  non  desmit  pabula  JS'fagno  ,- 
C'astraqne  Ccesareo  circumdatiis  aggere,  mutnty  i^c. 

Vast  clifT's,  beat  down,  no  more  o'erlook  tlie  main. 
And  levelled  mountains  form  a  wondrous  plain  ; 
Unbounded  trenches  with  high  forts  secure 
The  stately  works,  and  scorn  a  rival  power. 
AVoods,  forests,  parks,  in  endless  circuits  join*d. 
With  slrang-c  inclosures  cheat  the  savag-e  kind. 
Still  Pompey's  foragers  secure  may  range; 
Still  he  his  camp,  without  confinement,  change,  &c. 

The  exercises  of  their  body  were  walking,  running,  leaping,  vault 
:ng,  and  swimming.  The  first  was  very  serviceable  upon  account 
of  tedious  marches,  which  were  sometimes  of  necessity  to  be  under- 
taken; the  next  to  make  them  give  a  more  violent  charge  on  the 
enemy;  and  the  two  last  for  climbing  the  ramparts  and  passing  the 
litches.  The  vaulting  belonged  properly  to  the  cavalry,  and  is  still 
'Wned  as  useful  as  ever. 

The  exercises  of  their  arms  Lipsius  divides  into  fialaria  and  ar- 
■  at  lira. 

The  exercitia  ad  fialum,  or  fiaiaria^  were  performed  in  this  maii- 
ner ;  they  set  up  a  great  post  about  six  feet  high,  suitable  to  the  sta- 
uire  of  a  man  ;  and  this  the  soldiers  were  wont  to  assail  with  all  in- 
struments of  war,  as  if  it  were  indeed  a  real  enemy ;  learning  upon 
his,  by  the  assistance  of  the  camfiidoctores,  how  to  place  their  blows 
»right.     Juvenal  brings  in  the  very  women  affecting  this  exercise  : 

•  Vel  quis  non  vidit  vulnera  pali 

Quern  cavat  assiduis  sxtdibus,  scutoque  lacessit  ?  Sat.  vi.  246 


^  Polvb.  lib.  1. 
-  Lib.  9. 


f  Lib.  9. 

8  Cxsar  de  BeU.     Gull.  lib.  2.  cap.  8 


^  Cxsar,  Bell.  Gal!. 


•  Iden),  lib.  7. 


220 


Ol     THE  ROMAN 


ART  OF  WAR. 


Who  has  lint  seen  them,  when,  without  a  bldsli, 

A^'-yinst  the  post  their  wicker-shields  they  crii?,li. 

Flourish  the  sword,  and  at  the  plastron  push  ^  jirtdk-v. 

Armatura  consisted  chiefly  in  the  exercises  performed  with  all 

imannrroF  missive  weapons;  as  throwinj^  of  the  spear  or  javelin, 

shooting  of  arrows,  and  the  like;  in  which  the  tyrones,  or  new  listed 

men,  were  trained  with  great  care, and  with  the  severest  discipline: 

Juvenal  may,  perhaps,  allude  to  this  custom  in  his  fifth  Satire,  15J. 

Tv  scdhi-i  fmeiia  mali  quod  in  agt^ere  vodit 
(■Jui  tetrituv  parma  et  galeae  metiienaqucf  ocelli 
IJiscit  ah  hivsiUn  Jacidum  tonpccre  captUu. 

To  you  surh  scabbM  liarsii  fmit  is  given,  as  raw 

Voung-  soldiers  at  their  exercisint,''  f^naw. 

Mho  trembling  learn  to  throw  tile  fatal  dart. 

And  under  rods  of  rough  centurions  smart.  diiyukv. 

Nor  did  the  common  soldiers  only  practise  tliesc  feats,  but  the 

commanders  themselves  often  set  them  an  example  of  industry,  and 

were  very  eminent  for  their  dexterity  in  performances  of  this  na 

ture.     Thus  the  famous  Scipio  is  described  by  Italicus,  lib.  8 : 

Ipw  inter  wedios  i^enttivdt  inq-entia  laudif! 

Si'^na  dabiify  lihvavc  sudcniy  iransniiftt-if  naltu 

^Mura/cs/'ossas,  undoauni  J'mnifere  iiundo 

Indutm  thoraca  vadiim  ;  spectuciila  tantx 

^inte  acies  virtutis  crant ;  Sigpe  cUite  plunta 

ilia  pttfonftumy  et  cnmpi  per  aperta  vohintem 

Jfnie  pcien  prcevertit  rqtnim  :   axpe  ardmix  idem 

Castronon  spatinm  et  saxo  transmisit  et  hasta. 

Among  the  rest  the  noble  chief  came  forth. 

And  show'd  glad  onions  of  his  future  worth  ; 

High  o'er  his  head,  admir'd  by  all  the  brave, 

lie  brandished  in  the  air  his  threat'ning  start'; 

Or  leap'd  the  ditch,  or  swam  the  spacious  moat. 

Heavy  with  arms  and  his  eiiibroider'd  coat ; 

Now  fiery  steeds,  though  spurr'd  with  fury  on. 

On  foot  he  challenged,  and  on  foot  outrun. 

While  cross  the  plain  he  sha[)ed  his  airy  course, 

Tlcw  to  the  goal,  and  shamed  the  gen'rous  horse  ; 

Now  pond'rous  stones,  well  poised,  with  both  his  hands 

Above  ihe  wond'ring  crowd  unmov'd  he  sends; 

Now  cross  the  camp  he  aims  his  ashen  spear, 

Which  o'er  ten  thousand  heads  flies  singing  thro'  the  air. 

Thus  have  we  taken  a  short  view  of  the  chief  duties,  works  and 
exercises  of  the  soldiers;  but  we  must  not  forget  their  constant  la- 
bour and  trouble  of  carrying  their  baggage  on  their  shoulders  in  a 
march  ;  this  was  commonly  so  heavy  a  burden,  and  so  extremely 
tiresome,  that  Virgil  calls  it  ijijustusfascis.     Geor.  iii.  346. 

JV  on  secus  ac  patriin  acer  Romanus  in  armis 
Injunto  unit  fi  f^ce  viam  dvm  carpit,  el  hosti 
Ante  expectatum  ftositin  stat  in  ordine  castn's. 
Thus  under  heav>  arms  the  youth  of  Rome 
Their  long  labori<^us  marches  overcome; 
Bending  with  unjust  loads  they  cheerly  go. 
And  pitch  their  sudden  camp  before  the  foe. 


7>RTPl;> 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

OF   THE    soldiers'    PAY. 

THE  Roman  pay  consisted  of  three  parts ;  money,  corn,  and 
clothes. 

As  to  the  money,  it  is  very  certain  that  for  above  three  hundred 

years  together  the  army  served  ^n-atis,  and  at  their  own  charge ;  and 

when  afterwards  a  certain  pay  came  to  be  established,  it  was  no  more 

than  two  oboii  a  day  to  the  common  foot;  to  the  horse  a  drachma 

apiece.    It  is  probable  that  the  Tribunes  received  what  was  counted 

very  considerable  (though  Polybius  is  silent  in  this  matter)  ;  since, 

in  several  authors,  we  find  a  large  salary  expressed  by  a  metaphor 

taken  from  a  Tribune's  stipend.     Thus  Juvenal  particularly : 

^Iter  enim^  quantum  in  legione  Tribuni 

Accipiunt,  donat  Calvin<e  vel  Catience.  Sat.  iii.  132. 

For  t'other  wealthy  rogue  can  throw  away 
L'pon  a  single  girl  a  tribune's  pay. 

Vet  Lipsius  has  conjectured,  from  very  good  authority,  that  it 
could  not  be  more  than  four  times  the  ordinary  stipend,  or  a  drachma 
and  two  oboli. 

And  these  were  all  such  mean  considerations,  that  Livy  had  very 
good  reason  for  this  remark:  Nulla  unquam  resjiublica  fuH,  in 
guam  tarn  sero  avaritia  luxiiriaquc  im?nigravcrin(,  nee  ubi  iaiitiis 
ac  tarn  diu  fiaufiertati  ac  fiarsimonia:  honosfuit.)  «  Never  was  there 
any  state  or  kingdom  in  which  avarice  and  luxury  so  late  gained  a 
head,  or  where  honest  poverty  and  frugality  continued  longer  in 
esteem  and  veneration." 

Julius  Caesar  was  the  first  that  made  any  considerable  alteration 
mthis  affair;  who,  Suetonius  affu'ms,  doubled  the  legionary  pay  for 
ever. 

Augustus  settled  a  new  stipend  raised  to  ten  asses  a  day  ;  and  the 
allowing  emperors  made  such  large  additions,  that  in  the  tinie  of 
Domitian,  the  ordinary  stipend  was  twenty-five  asses //rr  diem. 

The  officers  from  whom  they  received  the  money,  were  the  QuiEs- 
•ors,  or  rather  the  Tribuni  .Erarii,  who  were  a  distinct  society  from 
the  former,  and  who,  (as  Vossius"^  has  settled  the  point)  were  coni- 
iiHssioned  to  take  up  money  of  the  Quaestors  to  pay  off  the  armv. 
"ut  u  IS  probable,  that  being  many  in  number,  as  they  are  con- 


u 


J  Liv.  lib.  1. 


30 


^  Id  Etym.  Lat.  in  voce  Trib. 


ooo 


01   THE   ROMAN 


AKT  OF  WAR. 


stanlly  rtp:  tscntcd  in  hibtoiy,  they  had  some  other  business  besides 
this  given  in  charge.  Calvin  the  Civilian  says,  that  they  had  the 
Mipcrvisal  of  all  the  money  coined  in  the  city,  as  the  Quxstor  took 
care  of  the  taxes  coming  in  frofn  the  provinces.' 

Besides  the  pay  received  in  money,  we  read  of  corn  and  clothe-^ 
as  often  given  to  the  soldiers ;  but  Polybius  assures  us,  that  the 
Qnccstor  always  subtracted  some  part  of  their  pay  on  that  account : 
and  Plutarch,  among  the  popular  laws  of  C.  Gracchus,  makes  him 
the  author  of  one,  ordaining,  that  the  soldiers  should  be  clothed  at 
the  expense  of  the  state,  without  the  least  diminution  of  their  sti- 
pend. The  wheat  allowed  to  the  foot  was  every  man  four  ?}iodii  a 
month  ;  to  the  horse  two  modii^  and  seven  of  barley. 

It  was  common  for  the  soldiers,  especially  in  the  time  of  the  strict 
discipline,  to  prepare  the  corn  themselves  for  their  own  use;  and 
therefore  some  carried  hand-mills  about  with  them,  to  grind  it  with  , 
others  pounded  it  with  stones;  and  this,  hastily  baked  ui)on  the 
coals,  very  often  furnished  them  with  a  meal,  which  they  made  upon 
tables  of  turf,  with  no  other  drink  than  bare  water,  or  what  they 
called /zo.9(fl,  water  sharpened  with  a  mixture  of  vinegar. 


CHAPTER  XV. 


OF    THE    MILITARY    PUNISHMENTS. 


THE  punishments  used  in  the  camp,  were  such  as  reached  either 
the  offenders'  bodies,  credit,  or  goods.  The  corporal  punishments 
were  usually  beating  with  the  vites  or  rods,  or  bastinading  with  the 
fustcs;  the  last,  though  already  reckoned  up  among  the  civil  pun- 
ishments which  did  not  touch  the  life  of  the  malefactors,  yet  in  the 
camp  it  was  for  the  most  part  capital,  and  was  performed  after  this 
manner:  the  convicted  person  being  brought  before  the  Tribune, 
was  by  him  gently  struck  over  the  shoulders  with  a  staff;  after  this, 
the  criminal  had  liberty  to  run,  but,  at  the  same  time,  the  rest  of  the 
soldiers  had  liberty  to  kill  him  if  they  could ;  so  that  being  prose- 
cuted with  swords,  darts,  stones,  and  all  manner  of  weapons  on  every 
hand,  he  was  presently  disj)atched.  This  penalty  was  incurred  by 
stealing  any  thing  out  of  the  camp ;  by  giving  false  evidence  y  by 


« 


f 


aoandoning  their  post  in  battle ;  by  pretending  falsely  to  hare  done 
some  great  exploit,  out  of  hopes  of  a  reward  ;  or  by  fighting  with- 
out the  general's  order ;  by  losing  their  weapons ;  or  aggravating  a 
misdemeanor  less  than  either  of  these,  in  repeating  it  three  times. 

If  a  great  number  had  offended,  as  running  from  their  colours, 
mutinying,  or  other  general  crimes,  the  common  way  of  proceeding 
to  justice  was  by  decimation,  or  putting  all  the  criminals'  names 
together  in  a  shield  or  vessel,  and  drawing  them  out  by  lot;  every 
tenth  man  being  to  die  without  reprieve,  commonly  in  the  manner 
just  now  described  ;  so  that  by  this  means,  though  all  were  not  alike 
sensible  of  the  punishments,  yet  all  were  frighted  into  obedience. 
In  later  authors  we  meet  sometimes  with  -vicesiinatio^  and  centcsi- 
nmiioy  which  words  sufficiently  explain  themselves. 

The  punishments  which  reached  no  farther  than  their  credit,  by 
exposing  them  to  public  shame,  were  such  as  these  :  dc^rradinsr 
Ihcm  from  a  higher  station  to  a  lower  ;  giving  them  a  set  quantity 
of  barley  instead  of  wheat;  ungirding  them,  and  taking  away  their 
))elt;  making  them  stand  all  supper  time,  while  the  rest  sat  down, 
and  such  other  little  marks  of  disgrace. 

Besides  these,  A.  (iellius  has  recorded  a  very  singular  punish- 
ment, viz.  bleeding  the  delinquent.  Ilis  judgment  concerning  the 
original  of  this  custom  is  to  this  purpose  :  he  fancies  that,  in  elder 
times,  this  used  to  be  prescribed  to  the  drowsy  and  slugglish  sol- 
diers, rather  as  a  medicinal  remedy  than  a  punishment :  and  that  in 
after  ages  it  might  have  been  applied  in  most  other  faults,  upon  this 
lonsidcration,  that  all  those  who  did  not  observe  the  rules  of  their 
discipline,  were  to  be  looked  upon  as  stupid  or  mad;  and  for  per- 
sons in  those  conditions,  blood-letting  is  commonly  successful."' 
But  because  this  reason  is  hardly  satisfactory,  the  great  critic  Mu- 
retus  has  obliged  us  with  another,  believing  the  design  of  this  cus- 
tom to  have  been,  that  those  mean-spirited  wretches  might  lose  that 
Idood  with  shame  and  disgrace,  which  they  dared  not  spend  nobly 
•nd  honourably  in  the  service  of  theircountry." 

\s  for  the  punishments  relating  to  their  goods  and  money,  the 
Tribunes  might  for  several  faults  impose  a  fine  on  the  delinquents, 
and  force  them  to  give  a  pledge  in  case  they  could  not  pay.  Some- 
times too  they  stopped  the  stipend ;  whence  they  were  called,  by 
\vay  of  reproach,  <erc  di7'uti. 


A    Hell.  lib.  10.  cap.  8. 


"  Muret.  Variar,  Lect.  lib.  13.  cap.  2' 


'  Calv.  Jur.  in  voce  Trib.  J£ts.x\u 


224 


Of    lilL  i;UMAf« 


CIlAPTi:U  XVI. 


OF  THE  MILIJAUY   RP:WAkD5. 


HUT  the  encouragements  of  valour  and  industry  were  niuth  nioi  c 
considerable  than  the  proceedings  against  the  contrary  vices.  The 
most  considerable  (not  to  speak  of  the  promotion  from  one  slatior. 
to  the  other,  nor  of  the  occasional  donations  in  money,  distinguished 
by  this  name  from  the  largesses  bestowed  on  the  common  ])eopk, 
and  termed  conifiariuj)  were  first  the  dona  im/irratoria,  such  as 

The  /la.sni  fiura,  a  fine  spear  of  wood  without  any  iron  on  it, 
such  an  one  as  Virgil  has  given  Sylvius  in  the  sixth  yilneid,  760. 
/de  Tidci?  purajuvcnis  r/i«'  ?utitur  hasta. 
This  present  was  usually  bestowed  on  him  who  in  some  litdc 
skirmish  hud  killed  an  enemy,  engaging  him  hand  to  hand. 

They  were  reckoned  very  honourable  gifts,  and  the  gods  arc  com- 
monly  represented  on  the  old  coins  with  such  spears.  Mr.  Walker 
derives  hence  the  custom  of  our  great  oflicers  carrying  white  rods 
or  staves,  as  ensigns  of  their  places. 

The  armilLv,  a  sort  of  bracelets,  given  upon  account  of  some 
eminent  service,  only  to  such  as  were  born  Romans. 

The  ion/uesy  golden  and  silver  collars,  wreathed  with  curious  art 
and  beauty.  Pliny  attributes  the  golden  collars  to  the  auxiliaries, 
and  the  silver  to  the  Roman  soldiers;  but  this  is  supposed  to  be  a 
mistake. 

The  fihalerx,  conmionly  thought  to  be  a  suit  of  rich  trappings  for 
a  horse ;  but,  because  we  find  them  bestowed  on  the  foot  as  well  as 
the  cavalry,  we  may  rather  suppose  them  to  have  been  golden  chains 
of  like  nature  with  the  torques,  only  that  they  seem  to  have  hung 
down  to  the  breast;  whereas  the  other  went  only  round  the  neck. 
The  hopes  of  these  two  last  are  particularly  urged,  among  the  ad- 
vantages of  a  military  life,  by  Juvenal,  Sat.  xvi.  60. 
Ut  Lett  phaleris  omnes,  et  torqidbus  omnes. 

The  vcxilla^  a  sort  of  banners  of  diftercnt  colours,  worked  hi 
silk,  or  other  curious  materials,  such  as  Augustus  bestowed  oii 
Agrippa,  after  he  had  won  the  sea-fight  at  Actium. 

Next  to  these  were  the  several  coronets,  received  on  various  oc- 
casions.    As, 

Corona  civica,  given  to  any  soldier  that  had  saved  the  life  of  a 
Roman  citizen  in  an  engagement.     This  was  reckoned  more  ho- 


•     •    • .  •  •     .,  J 
•  •   ••••••     ••-* 


t  'omiiH  TnMni|i«i»lix 


(^omiui  Vfiiraiii 


(  iiriiiia  ( ' 


iirt  I  ivK-a 


vf\(  'lUttrvcuOM 


C  o  rona  Vovalia 


fLi'tmarl-^.f, 


/'U/'ti.'f>>*l  />%■  ffttknitif  ti  //sj  r .-./n/  /j'/f/'f-rfit/  .*/. 


•)    •   » 


ART  OF  WAR. 


noiirablc  than  any  other  crown,  though  composed  of  no  better  ma- 
terials than  oaken  boughs.     Virgil  calls  it  civllis  qucrcus,  Mvi.  vi. 

772. 

Jitqtie  iimbrata  gemnt  chili  tempora  qiiercn. 

Plutarch  has  guessed  very  happily  at  the  reason  why  the  branches 
of  this  tree  should  be  made  use  of  before  all  others.  For  the  oaken 
\rrcath,  says  he,  being  otherwise  sacred  to  Jupiter,  the  great  guar- 
dian of  their  city ;  they  might  therefore  think  it  the  most  proper 
ornament  for  him  who  hiid  preserved  a  citizen.  Besides,  the  oak 
may  very  well  claim  the  preference  in  this  case;  because  in  the 
primitive  times  that  tree  alone  was  thought  almost  sufficient  for  the 
preserving  of  man's  life:  its  acorns  were  the  principal  diet  of  the 
old  mortals,  and  the  honey,  which  was  commonly  found  there,  pre- 
sented them  with  a  very  pleasant  liquor." 

Ii  was  a  particular  honour  conferred  on  the  persons  who  had 
merited  this  crown,  that,  when  they  came  to  any  of  the  public  shows, 
the  whole  company,  as  well  senate  as  people,  should  signify  their 
•cspcct,  by  rising  up  when  they  saw  them  enter;  and  that  they 
Nhould  take  their  seat  on  these  occasions  among  the  senators ;  beinc^ 
also  excused  from  all  troublesome  duties  and  services  in  their  own 
^-ersons,  and  procuring  the  same  immunity  for  their  father  and 
grandfather  by  his  side.p 

Corona  muralis,  given  to  him  who  first  scaled  the  walls  of  a  city 
in  a  general  assault ;  and  therefore  in  the  shape  of  it  there  was  some 
allusion  made  to  the  figure  of  a  wall. 

Corona  castrennis^  or  vallaris^  the  reward  of  him  who  had  first 
forced  the  enemy's  entrenchments. 

Corona  navalis,  bestowed  on  such  as  had  signalized  their  valour 
nan  cngasiement  at  sea;  being  set  round  with  figures  like  the 
^eaks  of  ships : 


Cui  belli  iusigne  siipevbnm 


Tempora  navali  fulgent  rostrata  corona.        Vir.  iELv.  viil.  684. 

Lipsius  fancies  the  corona  navalis, 2ind  the  rostrata^io  have  been 
distinct  species,  though  they  are  generally  believed  to  be  the  same 
kind  of  crown. 

Corona  ohsidionalls ;  this  was  not  like  the  rest  given  by  the  ge- 
neral to  the  soldiers,  but  presented  by  the  common  consent  of  the 
soldiers  to  the  general,  when  he  had  delivered  the  Romans  or  their 
:dlicb  from  a  siege.  It  was  composed  of  the  grass  growing  in  the 
'jcsicged  place. 


l*liitarch.  in  Coriolan 


p  Plin.  lib.  16.  cap.  4. 


OF  THE  ROMAN 


ART  or  WAR. 


22  r 


Corona  triumfihalis^  made  with  wreaths  of  laurel,  and  proper 
only  to  such  generals  as  had  thehonour  of  a  triumph.  In  after  at^es 
this  was  changed  for  gold  {auremn  corojiaritun)^  and  not  restrained 
only  to  those  that  actually  triumphed,  but  presented  on  several  other 
accounts,  as  commonly,  by  the  foreign  states  and  provinces,  to  their 
patrons  and  benefactors.  Several  of  the  other  crowns  too  arc 
thought  to  have  been  of  gold  ;  as  the  cafitrensia^  the  murai^  and  the 
vavai. 

Besides  these,  we  meet  with  the  coro?i tic  aurc^,  ohcn  bestowed  on 
soldiers  without  any  additional  term. 

And  Dion  Cassius  mentions  a  particular  sort  of  coronet  made  of 
olive  boughs,  .-nd  bestowed,  like  the  rest,  in  consideration  of  some 
signal  act  of  valour. 

Lipsius  believes  these  to  have  succeeded  in  the  room  of  the 
irolden  crowns,  after  they  were  laid  aside. 

The  most  remarkable  person  upon  record  in  history,  for  obtain- 
ing a  great  number  of  these  rewards,  was  one  C.  Siccius  (or  Sici- 
i)Us)Dcntatus;  who  had  received  in  the  time  of  his  military  service 
eight  crowns  of  gold,  fourteen  civic  crowns,  three  mural,  eighiv 
three  golden  torques,  sixty  golden  arwilla,  ei^hiccw  /unta pura. 
and  seventy-five  fihalcrx^ 

But  far  greater  honours  were  conferred  on  the  victorious  gene 
rals,  some  of  which  were  usually  decreed  them  in  their  absence, 
others  at  their  arrival  in  the  citv 

Of  llie  former  kind  were  the  aaiuLuuy  unfiei-atoris^  and  the  i^uj 
fUicatio  ;  of  the  latter  the  ovation  and  the  triiimjih. 

The  first  of  these  was  no  more  than  the  saluting  the  commander 
in  chief  with  the  title  o'i  unfierator,  upon  account  of  any  remarkable 
success;  which  title  was  decreed  him  by  the  Senate  at  Rome,  after 
it  had  been  given  him  by  joint  acclamations  of  the  soldiers  in  the 
camp. 

The  sn/i/iluatio  was  a  solemn  procession  to  the  temple  of  th( 
gods,  to  return  thanks  for  any  victory. 

After  obtaining  any  such  remarkable  advantage,  tlie  general  com 
monly  gave  the  senate  an  account  of  the  exploit  by  letters  wreathed 
about  with  laurel  {litvr£  laureatx),  in  which,  after  the  account  of 
his  success,  he  desired  the  favour  of  a  supplication,  or  public  thanks- 
giving. 

This  being  granted  for  a  set  number  of  days,  the  senate  went  in 
a  solemn  manner  to  the  chief  temples,  and  assisted  at  the  sacrifices 

A.  ticH.  lib.  .    tap.  11       \uJcr.  Ma.x.  i^^. 


proper  to  the  occasion  ;  holding  a  feast  in  the  temples  to  the  honou . 

of  the  respective  deities.     Hence  Servius  explains  that  of  Virgil, 

Sinml  Divum  templh  indicit  hovoremy  JF.y.  i.  636. 

as  alluding  to  a  solemn  supplication. 

In  the  mean  lime,  the  whole  body  of  the  commonalty  kept  holy- 
(lay,  and  frequented  the  religious  assemblies  ;  giving  thanks  for  the 
late  success,  and  imploring  a  long  continuance  of  the  divine  favour 
and  assistance. 

Octavius  Cxsar,  together  with  the  Consuls  Hirtius  and  Pansa, 
upon  their  raising  the  siege  of  iMutina,  were  honoured  with  a  sap- 
plication  fifty  days  long. 

At  last  this  ceremony  became  ridiculous;  as  appears  from  the 
,upplications  decreed  Nero,  for  the  murder  of  his  mother,  and  for 
he  fruitfulness  of  Popxa,  of  which  we  read  in  Tacitus. 

The  ovation  some  fancy  to  have  derived  its  name  from  shouting 
r.vion  I  to  Bacchus  ;  but  the  true  original  is  ovis,  the  sheep,  which 
was  usually  offered  in  this  procession,  as  an  ox  in  the  triumph. 
The  show  generally  began  at  the  Albanian  mountain,  whence  the 
.c^encral,  with  his  retinue,  made  his  entry  into  the  city;  he  went  on 
loot  with  many  flutes,  or  pipes,  sounding  in  concert  as  he  passed 
along,  wearing  a  garment  of  myrtle  as  a  token  of  peace,  with  an  as- 
pect rather  raising  love  and  respect  than  fear.  A.  Gellius  informs 
us,  that  this  honour  was  then  conferred  on  the  victor,  when  either 
the  war  had  not  been  proclaimed  in  due  method,  or  not  undertaken 
against  a  lawful  enemy,  and  on  a  just  account;  or  when  the  enemy 
was  but  mean  and  inconsiderable.^  But  Plutarch  has  delivered  hi^^ 
'udgment  in  a  different  manner ;  he  believes  that  heretofore  the  dif- 
Icrence  betwixt  the  ovation  and  the  triumph  was  not  taken  from  the 
greatness  of  the  achievements,  but  from  the  manner  of  p^rformintr 
•hem;  for  they  who  having  fought  a  set  battle,  and  slain  a  great 
number  of  the  enemy,  returned  victors,  led  that  martial  and  (as  it 
•vere)  cruel  j)rocession  of  the  triumph.  But  those  who  without 
force,  by  benevolence  and  civil  behaviour,  had  done  the  business, 
•ncl  prevented  the  shedding  of  human  blood  ;  to  these  commanders 
ustom  gave  the  honour  of  this  peaceable  ovation'  For  a  pipe  is 
he  ensign  or  badge  of  peace,  and  myrtle  the  tree  of  Venus,  who, 

cyond  any  other  deities,  has  an  extreme  aversion  to  violence  and 

>var.' 

But  whatever  other  difl'erence  there  lay  between  these  two  solem- 
'lities,  we  are  assured  the  triumph  was  much  the  more  noble  and 
splendid  procession.     None  were  capable  of  this  honour  but  Dic- 


'  Xoct.  Att.  lib.  V.  cap.  6. 


*  Plut.  in  Marcell. 


♦j:^8 


or  THE  ROMAN 


lators,  Consuls,  or  Prxtors;  tlioui^h  we  find  some  examples  of  dli- 
fcrcnt  jiraciicc;  as  particularly  in  Pompey  the  Cireat,  who  had  a 
triumph  dccrceci  him,  while  he  was  only  a  Roman  knight,  and  had 
not  reached  the  Scnatorian  age/ 

A  regular  account  of  the  proceedings  at  one  of  these  solemnities, 
Avill  give  us  a  better  knowledge  of  the  matter  than  a  larger  disqui 
hilion  about  the  several  parts  and  appendages  that  belonged  to  it 
And  this  the  excellent  Plutarch  has  favoured  us  with,  inhisdcsciip- 
tion  of  Paulus  vl^'.miliub's  triumph  after  the  taking  king  Perseus  prj. 
soncr,  and  putting  a  final  period  to  the  Macedonian  empire.  This 
iiuist  be  owned  to  be  the  most  glorious  occasion  imaginable  ;  and 
therefore  we  may  expect  the  most  complete  relation  that  can  pos- 
sibly be  desired.  The  ceremony,  then,  of  i^milius's  triumph,  was 
performed  after  this  manner: 

'*  The  people  erected  scaffolds  in  the  Forum  and  Circus,  and  all 
the  other  pans  of  the  city  where  they  could  best  behold  the  pomp. 
The  spectators  were  clad   in  white  garments;  all  the  temples  were 
open,  and   full  of  garlands  and  perfumes ;  the  ways  cleared  and 
cleansed  by  a  great  many  officers  and  tipstaffs,  that  drove  away  such 
as  thronged  the  passage,  or  straggled  up  and  down.     This  triumph 
lasted  three  days  ;  on  the  first,  which  was  scarce  long  enough  for  the 
sight,  were  to  be  seen  tlie  statues,  pictures,  and  images,  of  an  extra- 
ordinary bigness,  whicli  were  taken  from  the  enemy,  drawn  upon 
seven  hundred  and  fifty  chariots.     On  the  second  was  carried,  in  a 
i^rcat  many  wains,  the  fairest  and  the  richest  armour  of  the  Mace- 
donians, both  of  brass  and  steel,  all  newly  furbished  and  glillcring; 
which,  although  piled  up  with  the  greatest  art  and  order,  yet  seemed 
to  be  tumbled  on  heaps  carelessly  and  by  chance ;  helmets  were 
thrown  on  shields,  coats  of  mail  upon  greaves,  Cretan  targets  and 
Thracian  bucklers  and  quivers  of  arrows  lay  huddled  among  horses' 
bits  ;  and  through  these  appeared  the  points  of  naked  swords,  inter- 
mixed with  long  spears.     All   these  arms  were  tied  together  wiih 
such  a  just  liberty,  that  they  knocked  against  one  another  as  they 
were  drawn  along,  and  made  a  harsh  and  terrible  noise  ;  so  that  the 
very  spoils  of  the  conquered  could   not  be  beheld  without  dread. 
After  these  waggons  loaden  with  armour,  there  followed  three  thou- 
sand men,  who  carried  the  silver  that  was  coined,  in  seven  hundred 
and  fifty  vessels,  each  of  which  weighed  three  talents,  and  was  car- 
ried by  four  men.     Others  brought  silver  bowls,  and  goblets  and 
cups,  all  disposed  in  such  order  as  to  make  the  best  show,  and  all 
valuable,  us  well  for  their  bigness,  as  the  thickness  of  their  engraved 

*  Plut.  in  Pomp. 


ART  OF  WAR. 


229 


work.     On  the  third  day,  early  in  the  morning,  first  came  the  truth- 
peters,  who  did  not  sound  as  ihcy  were  wont  in  a  procession  or  so- 
lenm  entry,  but  such  a  charge  as  the   Romans  use  when  they  en- 
courage  their  soldiers   to  fight.     Next  followed  young  men  j^irt 
about  with  girdles  curiously  wrought,  which  led  to  the  sacrifice 
120  stalled  oxen,  with  their  horns  gilded,  and   their  heads  adorned 
With  r.hands  and  garlands;  and  with  these  were  boys  that  carried 
platters  of  silver  and   gold.     After  this  was  brought  the  gold  coin, 
.  h.ch  was  divided  into  vessels  that  weighed  three  talents,  like  to  those 
t  at  contamed  the  silver;   they  were  in  number  fourscore  wanting 
three.      1  hcse  were  followed  by  those  that  brought  the  consecrated 
howl,  which  Amilius  caused   to  be  made,  that  weighed  ten  talents, 
and  was  all  beset  with  precious  stones  :  Then  were  exposed  to  view 
I  e  cups  of  Antigonus  and  Seleucus,  and  such  as  were  made  after 
•he  ashion  invented  by  Thericles,  and  all  the  gold  plate  that  was 
.sed  at  1  erseus's  table.     Next  to  these  came  Perseus's  chariot,  in 
:lie  which  his  armour  was  placed,  and  on  that  his  diadem:  And 
altcT  a  little  intermission,  the  king's  children  were  led  captives,  and 
^wth  ihcm  a  train  of  nui^es,  masters,  and  governors,  who  all  went, 
an     stretched  forth  their  hands  to  the  spectators,  and  taught  the 
little  in  ants  to  beg  and  intreat  their  compassion.     There  were  two 
^ons  and  a  daughter,  who,  by  reason  of  their  tender  age,  were  alto- 
l^cther  insensible  of  the  greatness  of  their  misery,  which  insensibi- 
Hy  of  the.r  condition  rendered  it  much  more  deplorable;  insomuch 
that     erseus  himself  was  scarce  regarded  as  he  went  along,  whilst 
Pity  had  fixed  the  eyes  of  the  Romans  upon  the  infants,  and  many 
^  them  could  not  forbear  tears;  all  beheld  the  sight  with  a  mixture 
of  sorrow  and  joy,  until  the  children  had  past.     After  his  children 
and  their  attendants  came  Perseus  himself,  clad  all  in  black,  and 
^^^•aring  slippers,  after  the  fashion  of  his  country;  he  looked  like 
^ne  altogether  astonished  and  deprived  of  reason,  through  the  great- 
ncssof  his  misfortunes.     Next   followed  a  great  company  of  his 
•'Jends  and  familiars,   whose  countenances   were   disfigured  with 
gnef,  and  who  testified  to  all  that  beheld   them,  bv  their  tears  and 
'cir  continual  looking  upon  Perseus,  that  it  was  his  hard  fortune 
^^ey  so  much  lamented,  and   that   they   were  regardless  of  their 
^^^^•n.     After  these  were  carried  four  hundred  crowns,  all  made  of 
.'Old,  and  sent  from   the  cities  by  their  respective  ambassadors  to 
^t-milms,  as  a  reward  due  to  his  valour.     Then  he  himself  came 
^cated  on  a  chariot  magnificently  adorned  (a  man  worthv  to  be  be- 
^  ficl,  even  without  these  ensigns  of  power);  he  was  clad  in  a  gar- 
^^na  of  purple  interwoven  with  gold,  and  held  out  a  laurel-branch 
•  ^^^  right  hand.     All  the  army  in  like  manner,  with  boughs  of 

31 


23() 


OF  THE   ROMAN 


laurel   in  their  hands,  and  divided   into  bands  and  companies,  foj. 
lowed  the  chariot  of  their  commander,  some  singinp;  odes  (accord 
ing  to  the  usual   custom)  miiiL^Ied  with  raillery;  others,  son^s  ot 
triumph,  and  the  praises  of  j^^Lmilius's  deeds,  wIjo  was  admired  and 
accounted  happy   by   all  men,  yet  uncnvied   by  every  one  that  was 

gooil. 

There  was  one  remarkable  addition  to  this  solemnity,  which, 
though  it  seldom  happened,  yet  ought  not  to  escape  our  notice  ;  this 
was  when  the  Roman  general  had,  in  any  engagement,  killed  the 
chief  coumiandcr  of  the  enemy  with  his  own  hands;  for  then  m  the 
triumphal  pomp,  the  arms  of  the  slain  captain  were  carried  befonr 
the  victor,  decently  lianging  on  the  stock  of  an  oak,  and  so  com- 
posing a  trophy.  In  this  manner  the  procession  went  to  the  temple 
of  Jupiter  rcrclrius  (so  called  dfericndo);  and  the  general  making 
a  formal  dedication  of  the  spoils  (the  fi/iolin  o/iinm,  as  they  termed 
them),  hung  them  up  in  the  temple.  The  first  who  performed  this 
p-allant  piece  ot  religion,  was  Homulus,  when  he  had  slain  Acron, 
king  of  the  C(i:ninenses;  the  second,  Cornelius  Cossus,  with  the 
arms  of  Tolumnius,  a  general  of  the  Veientcs;  the  third  and  lasi, 
M.  Marcellus,  with  those  taken  from  Viridomarus,  king  of  the 
Gauls;  whence  Virgil  says  of  him,  Mu.  vi.  859  : 

Ttrtiaque  avmu  patH  suspendct  capta  Quiririo. 

Where  Quiriuo  must  be  understood  only  as  an  epithet  applied  to 
Jupiter,  as  denoting  his  authority  and  power  in  war;  as  the  same 
woid  is  attributed  to  Janus  by  Horace  and  Suetonius.  Therefore 
Servius  is  most  certainly  guilty  of  a  mistake,  when  he  tells  us,  thai 
the  fii  St  spoils  of  this  nature  were,  according  to  Numa's  laws,  to  be 
presented  to  Jupiter;  the  second  to  INIars;  and  the  third  to  Quiri- 
nus,  or  Romulus;  for  that  decree  of  Numa  only  took  place,  if  the 
same  person  had  the  good  fortune  to  take  these  spoils  three  times; 
but  we  are  assured,  that  not  only  Romulus,  but  Cossus  and  Mar- 
cellus too,  all  made  the  dedication  to  Jupiter. 

The  admirers  of  the  Roman  magnificence  will  be  infinitely  pfcased 
with  the  relation  already  given  from  Plutarch  of  the  triumphal 
pomp  ;  while  others,  who  fancy  that  people  to  have  been  possessed 
with  a  strange  measure  of  vain-glory,  and  attribute  all  their  military 
state  and  grandeur  to  ambitious  ostentation,  will  be  much  better 
satisfied  with  the  satirical  account  which  Juvenal  furnishes  us  with 
in  his  tenth  Satire.  He  is  saying,  that  Democritus  found  subject 
enough  for  a  continual  fit  of  laughter,  in  places  where  there  was  no 
such  formal  pageantry  as  is  commonly  to  be  seen  in  Rome  j  an 
then  he  goes  on,  36 : 


ART  OF    WAR. 

Quid,  xi  vidinRPt  Prtetorem  cvrribus  aids 
/:.r8tcwttfm,  et  vwdio  unhliiwm  in  pnlvcre  Cirri 
In  tunica  Joiift,  ft  fnct,r  Sarratia  ffrentem 
Lj  Itumrrin  anhen  tofru,  mnerncrrpn'  r.oron<r 
runhim  oiheniy  rpunUo  ccvTi.r  rion  sujfnit  ulln? 
Qtiippf  tenet  BiiUitns  haiic  puMruft,  rt  aihi  (Joi'^-» 
A'e  pliicmt,  curni  .teri'as  portatur  oulcm. 
Ihi  nunc  it  vfjlucrem,  sa'ptro  f/u<e  nuririt  ehnruo  . 
niiiic  rornirinj'n^  hiiic  pr.ecerUntia  fonifi 
.if^'-mifUH  ujficia,  et  iiiveoB  udfrjtwi  Qmiitrt^ 
Ihfui.sa  in  loculiH,  quoa  sport ulu  Jtvit  amuuit. 

What  had  he  done,  had  he  beheld  on  hi^h, 
()»ir  Consul  seated  in  mock-majesty: 
His  chariot  rolling-  o'er  the  dusty  place, 
AV  h.le  with  dumb  5>ridc,  and  a  ^et  fom.al  face. 
He  moves  in  the  d«ill  ceremonial  track. 
With  .fove's  rnribroider'd  coat  upon  his  hack; 
A  suit  of  hangings  ha<l  not  more  opprest 
l/is  slioulderfc,  thun  a  loijjj  laborious  vest. 
A  heavy  gtw^ra,^.  fcaiPd  a  crown)  that  spread 
About  his  temples,  drown'd  his  nrtrrow  he.id  : 
And  wo!ild  have  crush'd  it  with  the  massy  freight, 
Hut  that  a  swcatinSj'  slave  sustained  the  weight, 
A  slave  in  the  same  cliariot  seen  to  ride, 
lo  mortify  the  mighty  niadman's  pride. 
And  now  th'  imperial  eagle  rais'd  on  hi;,'h, 
With  jL'-oMen  beak  Cthe  m;irk  of  majest\). 
Trumpets  before,  and  on  tlic  left  and  right 
A  cavalcade  of  nobles  all  in  white : 
In  their  own  natures  false  and  flattering  tribes; 
iJut  made  his  friends  by  places  and  by  bribes. 


2Z\ 


nWTDRX. 


CHAPTER    XVH. 

THE  ROMAN  WAY    OF  DECLARING  WAR,  AND  OF  MAKING  LEAGUE'^. 

THE  Romans  used  abundance  of  superstition  in  entering  upon 
any  hostility,  or  closing  in  any  league,  or  confederacy;  the  public 
ministers,  who  performed  the  ceremonial  part  of  both  these,  were  the 
feciales^  or  heralds  already  described  among  the  priests ;  nothing 
remains  but  the  ceremonies  themselves,  which  were  of  this  nature. 
^^  hen  any  neighbouring  state  had  given  sufficient  reason  for  the  se- 
nate to  suspect  a  design  of  breaking  with  them;  or  had  offered  any 
violence  or  injustice  to  the  subjects  of  Rome,  which  was  enough  to 
give  them  the  repute  of  enemies  :  one  of  ihe/eciaies,  chosen  out  of 
'he  college  upon  this  occasion,  and  habited  in  the  vest  belonging  to 
is  order,  together  with  his  other  ensigns  and  habiliments,  set  for- 


or  THE   ROM  A 5; 


ART  OF  WAR. 


233 


yi^rd  for  llic  enemy's  country.     As  soon  as  he  reached  tlic  confineji, 
he  pronounced   a   foinud   declaration  of  the  cause  of  his  arrival, 
calling  all  the  gods  to  witness,  and  imprecating;  the  divine  vengeance 
on  himself  and  his  country,  if  his  reasons  were  not  just.     When  he 
cmne  to  the  chief  city  of  the  enemy,  he  again  repealed  the  same  de- 
claration, with  some  addition,  and  withal  desired  satisfaction.     If 
they  delivered  into  his  power  the  authors  of  Iheinjuiy,  or  gave  hos- 
tages for  security,  he  returned  satisfied  to  Home  ;  if  otherwise,  they 
desired  time  to  consider;   he  went  away  for  ten  days,  and  then  came 
again  to  hear  their  resolution.     And   this  he  did,  in  some  cases, 
three  times;  but  if  nothing  was  done  toward  an  accommodation  in 
about  thirty  days,  he  declared  that  the  l^umans  would  endeavour  to 
assert  their  right  by  their  arms.     After  this  the  herald  was  obliged 
to  return,  and  make  a  true  report  of  his  end)assy  before  the  senate, 
assuring  them  ol   the  legality  of  the  war  which  they  were  now  con- 
sulting to  undertake ;  and  was  then  again  dispatched  to  perform 
the  last  part  of  the  ceremony,  which  was  to  throw  a  spear  into  (or 
towards)  the  enemy's  country,  in  token  of  defiance,  and,  as  a  sum- 
mons to  war,  pronouncing  at  the  same  lime  a  set  form  of  words  to 
the  like  purpose. 

As  to  the  making  of  leagues,  Polybius  accpiaints  us,  that  the  rati 
fication  of  the  articles  of  an  agreement  between  the  Romans  and 
the  Carthaginians  was  performed  in  this  manner:  The  Carthagini- 
ans swore  by  the  gods  of  their  country  ;  and  the  Romans,  after  their 
ancient  custom,  swore  by  a  stone  and  then  by  Mars.  They  swore 
by  a  stone  thus  :  the  herald  who  took  the  oath  having  sworn  in  be- 
half of  the  public,  takes  up  a  stone,  and  then  pronounces  these 
words  : 

**  If  I  keep  my  faith,  may  the  gods  vouchsafe  their  assistance,  and 
give  me  success  ;  if,  on  the  contrary,  I  violate  it,  then  may  the  other 
party  be  entirely  safe,  and  preserved  in  their  country,  in  their  laws, 
in  their  possessions,  and,  in  a  word,  in  all  their  rights  and  liberties; 
and  may  I  perish  ami  fall  alone,  as  now  this  stone  does  :"  And  then 
he  lets  the  stone  fall  out  of  his  hands." 

Livy's  account  of  the  like  ceremony  is  something  more  particular; 
yet  diflers  little  in  substance,  only  that  he  says  the  herald's  conclud- 
ing clause  was,  ''  otherwise  may  Jove  strike  the  Roman  people,  as 
I  do  this  hog;"  and  accordingly  he  killed  a  hog  that  stood  ready  by, 
with  the  stone  which  he  held  in  his  hand.  This  last  opinion  is  con- 
firmed by  the  authority  of  Virgil,  when,  speaking  of  the  Romans 
and  Albanians,  he  says,  jEn.  viii.  641  ; 


Et  Cdpsajungebant  fatlera  p&rca. 


And  perhaps  both  these  customs  might  be  in  use  in  different 
limes. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

I  HE  ROMAN  METHOD  OF  TREATING  THE  PEOPLE  THEY  CONqUEHED  i 
WrrU  THE  CONSTITUTION  OF  THE  COLONI.E,  MUNICrPIA  PHiEFEC- 
ILRiE,  AND   PIIOVINCI^. 

THE  civil  usage  and  extraordinary  favours  with  which  the  Ro- 
mans obliged  the  poor  conquered  nations,  has  been  reasonably  es- 
teemed one  of  the  prime  causes  of  the  extent  of  their  dominions, 
and  the  establishment  of  their  command  ;  yet  when  they  saw  occa- 
^.ion,  they  were  not  behind  in  severer  methods,  such  as  the  seizing 
on  the  greatest  part  of  the  enemy's  land,  or  removing  the  natives  to 
another  soil.  If  a  state  or  people  had  been  necessitated  to  surren- 
der themselves  into  the  Roman  power,  they  used  .swA  jug-um  mittiy 
to  be  made  pass  under  a  yoke,  in  token  of  subjection  ;  for  this  pur- 
pose they  set  up  two  spears,  and  laying  a  third  across  them  at  the 
top,  ordered  those  who  had  surrendered  their  persons  to  go  under 
them  without  arms  or  belts.  Those  who  could  not  be  brought  to 
deliver  themselves  up,  but  were  taken  by  force,  as  they  suffered 
several  penalties,  so  very  often  sub  corond  venebant,  they  were  pub- 
licly sold  for  slaves ;  where  by  corona  some  understand  a  sort  of 
chaplets  which  they  put  about  the  captives'  heads  for  distinction ; 
others  would  have  it  mean  the  ring  of  the  Roman  soldiers,  w  ho 
stood  round  the  captives  while  they  were  exposed  to  sale.  A.  Gel- 
lius  prefers  the  former  reason.'' 

The  several  forms  of  government  which  the  Romans  established 
in  their  conquests  are  very  well  worth  our  knowledge,  and  arc  sel- 
dom rightly  distinguished  ;  we  may  take  notice  of  these  four;  Co- 
ionia,  JMunicifiia^  Prxfecturx^  and  Provincia. 

Colonic  (properly  speaking)  were  states,  or  communities,  where 
the  chief  part  of  the  inhabitants  had  been  transplanted  from  Rome; 
and  though  mingled  with  the  natives  who  had  been  left  in  the  con- 
quered place,  yet  obtained  the  whole  power  and  authority  in  the  ad- 
ministration of  affairs.     One  great  advantage  of  this  institution  was, 


•  Polvb.  lib.  r:. 


^  Lib.  7.  cap,  '4., 


334 


Of   1717'.  .10MAN 


ART  OF  WAR. 


235 


that  by  thi^  means  the  veteran  soldiers,  who  had  served  out  their 
legal  time,  and  had  spent  their  vigour  in  the  honour  and  defence  ol 
their  country,  might  be  favoured  with  a  very  agreeable  reward,  bv 
lormmg  them  into  a  coh^ny,  and  sending  tliem  where  they  might  be 
masters  of  large  possessions,  and  so  lead  the  remainder  of  their  days 
in  ease  and  plenty. 

Municiiini  were  commonly  corporations,  or  enfranchised  places, 
where  the  natives  were  allowed  the  use  of  their  old  laws  and  consti' 
tutions,  and  at  the  same  time  honoured  with  the  privilege  of  Roman 
citizens,     liut  then  this  privilege,  in  some  of  the  Municijiia,  reached 
Jio  farther  than  the  bare  title,  without  the  proper  rights  of  citizens, 
such  as  voting  in  li»e  assemblies,  bearing  oflices  in  the  city,  and  ihc 
like.     The  former  honour  gave  them  the  name  of  Gives  Romum 
the  other  on\y  oi  Romani ;  as  P.  Manutius  with  his  usual  exactness 
has  distinguished.^      Of  this  latter  sort,  the  first  example  were  the 
Carites,  a  people  of  Tuscany,  who,  preserving  the  sacred  relics  of 
the  Romans,  when  the  Gauls  had  taken  the  city,  were  afterwards 
dignified  with  the  name  of  Roman  citizens;  but  not  admitted  intu 
any  part  of  the  public  administration.     Hence  the  Censor's  tables, 
where  they  entered  the  names  of  such  persons  as  for  some  misde' 
meanor  were  to  lose  their  right  of  suffrage,  had  the  name  of  C>r/7e.v 

The  Prs:ft'cturx  were  certain  towns  in  Italy,  whose  inhabitants 
had  the  name  of  Roman  citizens  ;  but  were  neither  allowed  to  enjoy 
their  own  laws  nor  magistrates,  being  governed  by  annual  Piicfects 
sent  from  Rome.  These  were  generally  such  places  as  were  either 
suspected,  or  had  some  way  or  other  incurred  the  displeasure  of 
the  Roman  state;  this  being  accounted  the  hardest  condition  that 
was  imposed  on  any  people  of  Italy. v 

The  diflerences  between  the  proper  citizens  of  Rome,  and  the  in- 
habitants of  Municifua,  colonics,  and  rr.vfccfura:,  may  be  fhas  in 
short  summed  up.  The  first  and  highest  order  were  registered  in  the 
Census,  had  the  right  of  suHrage  and  of  bearing  honours,  were  as- 
sessed in  the  poll-tax,  served  in  the  legions,  used  the  Roman  laws 
and  religion,  and  were  called  Quiritcs  and  Pofmlus  Romavus.  The 
Municifies  were  allowed  the  four  first  of  these  marks,  and  were  de- 
nied the  four  last.  The  Coloui  were  in  these  three  respects  like 
the  true  citizens,  that  they  used  the  Roman  laws  and  religion,  and 
served  in  the  legions  ;  but  they  were  debarred  the  other  five  con- 
ditions.    The  people  in  the  Prxfecturnt  had  the  hardest  measure 


of  all;  being  obliged  to  submit  to  the  Roman  laws,  and  yet  enjoying 
no  farther  privilege  of  citizens." 

All  other  cities  and  slates  in  Italy,  which  were  neither  Colonia^ 
Mutiicifiia^  nor  Pr(rfectur<s^  had  the  name  of  Fadcruta  Civitatefi^ 
enjoying  entirely  their  own  customs,  and  forms  of  government,  with- 
out the  least  alteration,  and  only  joined  in  confederacy  with  the  Ro- 
mans, upon  such  terms  as  had  been  adjusted  between  them.* 

The  Provinces  were  foreign  countries  of  larger  extent,  which, 
upon  the  entire  reducing  them  under  the  Roman  dominions,  were 
new  modelled  according  to  the  pleasure  of  the  conquerors,  and  sub- 
jected to  the  command  of  annual  governors  sent  from  Rome,  being 
commonly  assigned  such  taxes  and  contributions  as  the  senate 
thought  fit  to  demand.  Rut  because  the  several  towns  and  commu- 
nities in  every  country  did  not  behave  themselves  in  the  same  man- 
ner toward  the  Romans,  some  professing  more  friendship,  and  a  de- 
sire of  union  and  agreement;  while  others  were  more  obstinate  and 
refractory,  and  unwilling  to  part  with  their  own  liberty  upon  any 
terms;  therefore,  to  reward  those  people  who  deserved  well  of  their 
hands,  they  allowed  some  places  the  use  of  their  own  constitutions 
in  many  respects,  and  sometimes  excused  the  inhabitants  from  pay- 
ing tribute;  whence  they  were  termed  Inumuiesy  in  opposition  to 
the  Vectigalea, 

The  tribute  exacted  from  the  provinces,  was  of  two  sorts,  either 
certain  or  uncertain.  The  certain  tribute,  or  6V/yir;z^iw;/z,  was  either 
a  set  sum  of  money  to  be  collected  by  the  provincial  Quiiestor,  which 
tliey  called  Pecufiia  ordiiiaria;  or  else  a  subsidy  raised  on  the  pro- 
vincials for  particular  occasions,  such  as  the  maintaining  of  so  many 
soldiers,  the  rigging  out  and  paying  such  a  r.umber  of  vessels,  and 
the  like,  termed  Pecujiia  extraordinaria. 

The  uncertain  tribute  consisted  of  what  they  called  Portorium^ 
Scrifitura^  and  Dccujna.  The  Portoriiim  was  a  duty  imposed  upon 
all  goods  and  wares  imported  and  exported.  I'he  Scrijiiura  was  a 
lax  laid  upon  pastures  and  cattle.  The  Decuma  was  the  quantity  of 
corn  which  the  farmers  were  obliged  to  pay  to  the  Roman  state, 
commonly  the  tenth  part  of  their  crop. 

But  besides  this,  which  ihcy  properly  termed  Frumentiun  dr- 
cumaninn^  and  which  was  farmed  by  the  publicans,  hence  called  de^ 
cu7na7ii,  there  was  the  Frunie7itU7n  €n)ptU77\^  and  Fru7nentUT7i  astiina- 
tum^  both  taken  up  in  -he  provinces.  The  Fruinc7itiim  €mfitum\S2A 
of  two  sorts,  either  dtcu7nanii7n^  or  imfieratinn  ;  the  former  was  ano- 
ther tenth  paid  upon  consideration  of  such  a  sum  as  the  senate  had 


'^  De  Civitat.  Rom.  p.  29. 
"A.  Gell.  lib.  16.  cap.  13. 


Calv.  Lexicon.  Juridi-c.  in  voce 


*  P.  Manut.  de  Civ.  Kom.  p.  oQ. 


« Idem. 


236 


OF  THE   ROMAN 


ART  OF  WAR. 


o«7 


cletcrmined  to  be  the  price  of  it,  who  rated  it  at  so  much  a  bushel 
according  to  their  pleasure.  The  Frumcntum  im/ieratum  wasacman' 
iity  of  corn  equally  exacted  of  the  provincial  farmers  after  the  two 
tenths,  at  such  a  price  as  the  chief  mat-istrate  pleased  to  give.  Fru 
mentum  Mimatum,  was  a  corn  tax  required  of  the  chief  magistrate 
of  the  province  for  his  private  use,  and  the  occasiom.  of  his  family 
1  his  was  commonly  compounded  for  in  money,  and,  on  that  account 
took  Its  name  ab  Mimando,  from  rating  it  at  such  a  sum  of  money' 
Besides  all  these,   Sigonius  mentions  Fru mentum  honorarium 
upon  the  authority  of  Cicero,  in  his  oration  against  Piso :  but  per- 
haps Cicero,  in  that  place,  does  not  restrain  the  honorarium  to  corn, 
but  may  mean,  in  general,  the  present  usually  made  to  provincial 
governors,  soon  after  their  entrance  on  their  oflice. 

After  Augustus  had  made  a  division  of  the  provinces  between 
himself  and  the  people,  the  annual  taxes  paid  by  the  provinces  un- 
dcr  the  emperor  were  called  stifwndia;  and  those  that  were  gather 
ed  in  the  people's  provinces,  tributa^ 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

•  UE  ROMAN    WAV    OF  TAKING    TOWNS;    WITH    THE    MOST    RLMAUKABM 
INVENTIONS  AND  ENGINES  MADE  USE  OF  IN  THEIR  SIEGES. 

Before  wc  inquire  into  this  subject,  a  very  memorable  custom 
presents  itself  to  our  notice,  which  was  practised  almost  as  soon  as 
the  Roman  army  invested  any  town ;  and  that  was  the  e-uocatio  De- 
orum  tutelarium,  or  inviting  out  the  guardian  deities;  the  reason  ot 
which  seems  to  have  been,  either  because  they  thought  it  impossi^ 
ble  to  force  any  place,  while  it  enjoyed  such  powerful  defenders;  or 
else  because  they  accounted  it  a  most  heinous  act  of  impiety,  to  act 
ill  hostility  against  the  persons  of  the  gods.  This  custom  is  de- 
scribed  at  Urge  by  Macrobius  in  his  Saturnalia,  lib.  3.  cap.  9. 

The  Romans  were  seldom  desirous  of  attempting  any  town  by  way 
of  siege,  because  they  thought  it  would  scarce  answer  the  expense 
and  incommodity  of  the  method  ;  so  that  this  was  generally  their  last 
hopes;  and  in  all  their  great  wars,  there  are  very  few  examples  of 
any  long  leaguers  undertook  by  them.     The  means,  by  which  they 

''  Calvin.  Lexicon.  Jurid.  in  Tributa. 


kS 


possessed  themselves  of  any  important  places,  were  commonly  either 
by  storm,  or  immediate  surrendry.   If  they  took  a  town  by  storm,  it 
was  cither  by  open  force,  or  by  stratagem.   In  the  former,  they  made 
their  attacks  without  battering  the  wall,  and  were  only  said  aggredi 
nrbem  cuth  corona^  to  begirt  a  town  ;  because  they  drew  their  whole 
army  round  the  walls,  and  fell  on  all  the  quarters  at  once.     If  this 
vay  was  ineffectual,  they  battered  down  the  walls  with  their  rams  and 
other  engines.   Sometimes,  they  mined  and  entered  the  town  under 
ground;  sometimes,  that  they  might  engage  with  the  enemy  upon 
equal  .erms,they  built  wooden  towers,  or  raised  mounts  to  the  height 
of  the  walls,  from  whence  they  might  gall  and  molest  them  within 
tlicir  works.     The  besieged  were  in  most  danger  in  the  first  case, 
upon  a  general  assault ;  for  their  walls  were  to  be  made  good  in  all 
places  at  once ;  and  it  fell  out  many  times,  that  there  were  not  men 
enough  to  supply  and  relieve  all  the  parts;  and  if  they  had  a  suffici- 
ent number  of  men,  yet  all  perhaps  were  not  of  equal  courage  ;  and 
if  any  gave  ground,  the  whole  town  was  in  a  great  hazard  of  being 
lost;  so  that  the  Romans  oftentimes  carried  very  considerable  places 
at  one  storm.  But  if  they  battered  the  walls  with  engines,  they  were 
under  some  disadvantage,  their  quarters  being  of  necessity  to  be 
extended,  so  that  they  must  be  thinner  and  weaker  in  some  places 
than  in  others,  and  unable  to  make  a  stout  opposition  against  any 
considerable  sally.   Besides,  the  besieged  were  not  at  a  loss  for  ways 
•jf defeating  their  stratagems;  as,  they  eluded   the  force  of  their 
mines  by  countermining,  or  by  disturbing  them  in  their  works  ;  par- 
ticularly putting  oil  and  feathers,  with  other  stinking  stuff,  into  bar- 
rels of  wood;  then  setting  them  on  fire,  they  tumbled  them  among 
the  Romans,  that  the  noisomeness  of  the  stench  might  force  them 
to  quit  their  stations.     Their  towers  of  wood,  their  rams  and  other 
engines,  they  commonly  set  on  fire  and  destroyed ;  and  then,  for 
the  mounts  which  were  raised  against  their  walls,   they  used,  by 
digging  underneath,   to  steal  away  the  earth,  and  loosen  the  foun- 
dations of  the  mount  till  it  fell  to  the  ground. 

Upon  this  account  the  Romans  (as  was  before  observed)  much 
preferred  the  sudden  andl)risk  way  of  attacking  a  place;  and  if  they 
did  not  carry  it  in  a  little  time,  they  frequently  raised  the  siege,  and 
prosecuted  the  war  by  other  means.  As  Scipio,  in  his  African  expe- 
dition, having  assaulted  Utica  without  success,  changed  his  resolu- 
tion, drew  off  his  men  from  the  place,  and  addressed  himself  wholly 
to  bring  the  Carthaginian  army  to  an  engagement.  And  therefore, 
though  sometimes  they  continued  a  tedious  siege,  as  at  Veii,  Car- 
'hage,  and  Jerusalem,  yet  generally  they  were  much  more  desirous 
«f  drawing  the  enemy  to  a  batJe;  for  by  defeating  an  army,  they 


.'52 


238 


or   Tim   RO.MAN 


ART  OF  WAR. 


239 


many  times  got  a  whole  kingdom  in  a  ilay ;  whereas  an  obstinate 
town  has  cost  tiicni  several  yeaib.  Sec  Machiavcrs  Art  of  War 
Book  II. 

The  inventions  and  enj^ines,  which  the  Romans  made  use  of  in 
their  siet^es,  were  very  numerous,  and  the  knowledge  of  them  is  but 
of  little  service  at  present ;  however,  we  may  take  a  short  view  of 
the  most  considerable  of  them,  which  most  freciuenlly  occur  in 
Caesar  and  other  historians;  these  are  the  Tiirres  mobiles^  the  Trs- 
tudirics^  the  Musculu^-^  the  Vivetx^  and  the  Plutei^  together  with  the 
Arifs,  the  Bali.sta,  the  CatuJ.ulta^  and  the  Scorfiio. 

The  turres  mobilcn^  or  moveable  turrets,  were  of  two  sorts,  the 
lesser  and  the  greater  ;  the  lesser  sort  were  about  sixty  cubits  high, 
and  the  square  sides  seventeen   cubits  broad  ;  they  had  five  or  six, 
and  sometimes  ten  stories  or  divisions,  every  division  being  made 
open  on  all  sides.  Tlu  greater  turret  was  120  cubits  high,  23  cubits 
square  ;  containing  sometimes  fifteen,  sometimes  twenty  divisions. 
They  were  of  very  great  use  in  making  approaches  to  the  walls,  the 
divisions  being  able  to  carry  soldiers  with  engines,  lad«iers,  castin^'- 
bridges,  and  other  necessaries.     The  wheels  on  which   thev  went, 
were  contrived  to  be  within  the  planks,  to  defend  them  from  the 
enemy,  and  the  men  who  were  to  drive  them  forward,  stood  behind, 
where  they  were  most  secure:  the  soldiers   in  the  inside  were  pro- 
tected by  raw  hides,  which  were  thrown  over  the  turret,  in  such 
places  as  were  most  exposed. 

The  testudo  was  properly  a  figure  which  the  soldiers  cast  them- 
selves into  ;  so  that  their  targets  should  close  all  together  above  their 
heads,  and  defend  them  from  the  missive  weapons  of  the  enemy;  as 
if  we  suppose  the  first  rank  to  have  stood  upright  on  their  feet,  and 
the  rest  to  have  stooped  lower  and  lower  by  degrees,  till  the  last  rank 
kneeled  down  upon  their  knees;  so  that  every  rank  covering  with 
their  target  the  heads  of  all  in  the  rank  before  them,  they  repre- 
sented a  tortoise-shell  or  a  sort  of  pent-house.  This  was  used  as 
well  in  field-battles  as  in  sieges.  But  besides  this,  the  Romans  call- 
ed in  general  all  their  covered  defensive  engines,  testudines;  among 
which,  those  which  most  properly  obtained  the  name,  seemed  to 
have  been  almost  of  an  oval  figure,  composed  of  boards,  and  wat- 
tled up  at  the  sides  with  wickers;  serving  for  the  conveyance  of  the 
soldiers  near  the  walls,  on  several  occasions;  they  ran  upon  wheels, 
and  so  were  distinguished  from  the  -vinea^  with  which  they  are 
sometimes  confounded. 

The  musculus  is  conceived  to  liave  been  much  of  the  same  nature 
as  the  testudines;  but  it  seems  to  have  been  of  a  smaller  size,  and 
composed  of  stronger  materials,  being  exposed  for  a  much  longer 


time  to  the  force  of  the  enemy;  for  in  these  musculi  the  pioneers 
were  sent  to  the  very  walls,  where  they  were  to  continue,  while 
with  their  f/o/a5;'^,  or  pick-axes,  and  other  instiuments,  they  en- 
deavoured to  undermine  the  foundations.  Caesar  has  described  the 
musculus  at  large  in  his  second  book  of  the  ci\il  wars. 

The  vinea  were  composed  of  wicker  hurdles  laid  for  a  roof  on  the 
top  of  posts,  which  the  soldiers,  who  went  under  it  for  shelter,  bore 
up  with  their  hands.  Some  will  have  them  to  have  been  contrived 
with  a  doul)le  roof;  the  first  and  lower  roof  of  planks,  and  the  upper 
roof  of  hurdles,  to  break  the  force  of  any  blow  without  disordering 
tlic  machine. 

The  filutci  consisted  of  the  same  materials  as  the  former,  but  were 
of  a  much  dificrent  figure,  being  shaped  like  an  arched  sort  of  wag- 
gon; and  having  three  wheels,  so  conveniently  placed,  that  the  ma- 
chine would  move  either  way  with  equal  ease.  They  were  put  much 
to  the  same  use  as  the  musculi. 

The  engines  hitherto  described  were  primarily  intended  for  the 
defence  of  the  soldiers  ;  the  offensive  are  yet  behind.  Of  these  the 
most  celebrated,  and  which  only  deserves  a  particular  description, 
was  the  aries  or  ram  ;  this  was  of  two  sorts,  the  one  rude  and  plain, 
tlie  other  artificial  and  compound.  The  former  seems  to  have  been 
no  more  than  a  great  beam  which  the  soldiers  bore  on  their  arms 
and  shoulders,  and  with  one  eml  of  it  by  main  force  assailed  the 
wall.  The  compound  ram  is  thus  described  by  Josephus :  "  The 
ram,  (says  he)  is  a  vast  long  beam,  like  the  mast  of  a  ship,  strength- 
ened at  one  end  with  a  head  of  iron,  something  resembling  that  of 
a  ram,  whence  it  took  iis  name.  This  is  hung  by  the  midst  with 
ropes  to  another  beam,  which  lies  across  a  couple  of  posts,  and 
hanging  thus  equally  balanced,  it  is  by  a  great  number  of  men  vio- 
lently thrust  forward,  and  drawn  backward,  and  so  shakes  the  wall 
with  its  iron  head.  Nor  is  there  any  tower  or  wall  so  thick  or  strong, 
that,  after  the  first  assault  of  the  ram,  can  afterwards  resist  its  force 
in  the  repeated  assaults."" 

Plutarch  informs  us  that  Mark  Antony,  in  the  Parthian  war, 
made  use  of  a  ram  fourscore  feet  long;  and  Vitruvius  tells  us,  that 
they  were  sometimes  106,  sometimes  120  feet  in  length;  and  to  this 
perhaps  the  force  and  strength  of  the  engine  was  in  a  great  mea- 
sure owing.  The  ram  was  managed  at  one  time  by  a  whole  cen- 
tury, or  order  of  soldiers,  and  they  being  spent,  were  seconded  by 
another  century;  so  that  it  played  continually  without  any  inter- 
mission, being  usually  covered  with  a  vincoy  to  protect  it  from  th« 
attempts  of  the  enemy. 

Flav.  Joseph,  de  Excidio  Hierosolym.  lib.  3. 


24U 


OF  THE  ROMAN 


I 


As  for  the  other  engines,  which  served  not  for  such  great  uses 
and  are  not  so  celebrated  in  authors,  a  mechanical  description  of 
them  would  be  vexatious  as  well  as  needless;  only  it  may  in  short 
be  observed,  that  the  bali^ta  was  always  employed  in  throwing  great 
stones,  the  catufiulta  in  casting  the  larger  sort  of  darts  and  spears 
and  the  4T4.r/i/o  in  sending  the  lesser  darts  and  arrows.  * 


AHT  OF  WAR. 


Z^\ 


CHAPTKR  XX. 


IHt  NAVAL  AFFAIRS  OF  THE  ROMANS. 


THE  Romans,  though  their  city  was  sealed  very  conveniently  for 
maritime  aftairs,  not  being  above  fifteen  miles  distant  from  the  Tyr- 
rhenian sea ;  and  having  the  river  Tyber  running  through  it,  capable 
of  receiving  the  smaller  vessels  ;  yet  seem  to  have  wholly  neglected 
all  naval  concerns  for  many  years  after  the  building  of  Ron.e.    And 
some  are  willing  to  assign  this  as  one  of  the  main  causes  which  pre- 
served  that  state  so  long  in  its  primitive  innocence  and  integrity; 
tree  from  all  those  corruptions  which  an  intercourse  with  foreigners 
might  probably  have  brought  into  fashion.  However  Dionysius  as- 
sures us,  that  Ancus  Martins  built  Ostia  at  the  mouth  of  the  Tybci 
ior  a  port,  that  the  city  might  by  this  means  be  supplied  with  the 
commodities  of  the  neighbouring  nations.'^  And  it  appears  from  the 
reasons  of  the  Tarcntine  war  agreed  upon  by  all  historians,  that  the 
Romans  in  that  age  had  a  fleet  at  sea.  Yet  Polybius  expressly  main- 
tarns,  that  the  first  lime  they  ever  adventured  to  sea  was  in  the  first 
F^unic  war  ;«^  but  he  must  either  mean  this  only  of  ships  of  war,  or 
else  contradict  himself;  for  in  another  part  of  his  works,  giving  up  a 
transcript  of  some  articles  agreed  on  between  the  Romans  and  the 
Carthaginians,  in  the  consulship  of  M.  Brutus  and  Horatius,  soon  af- 
ter the  expulsion  of  the  royal  family ;  one  of  the  articles  is  to  this 
effect,  that  the  Romans,  and  the  allies  of  the  Romans,  shall  not  navi- 
gate beyond  the  Fair  Promontory,  unless  constrained  by  weather,  or 
an  enemy.  Sec.     And  after  this,  in  two  other  treaties  which  he  has 
presented  us  with,  there  are  several  clauses  to  the  same  purpose 
Hut  howsoever  these  matters  arc  to  be  adjusted,  we  are  assured,  that 
about  the  year  of  the  city  492/  the  Romans  observing  that  the  coast 
of  Italy  lay  exposed  to  the  depredations  of  the  Carthaginian  fleet, 


**  Dionys.  Halle.  lib.  3. 
*  Lib.  1. 


f  Folyb.  lib.  .'5. 

^  Casaubon.  Chronolog,  ad  Pulvb. 


uhii:h  often  made  descents  upon  them,  and  considering  withal  that 
ihc  war  was  likely  to  last,  they  determined  to  render  themselves 
masters  of  a  naval  army.     So  wonderful  was  the  bravery  and  reso- 
luiion  of  that  people  in  enterprises  of  ilie  greatest  hazard  and  mo- 
MRiii,  that  having  hitherto  scarce  dreamed  of  navigation,  they  should, 
ui  one  heat,  resolve  on  so  adventurous  an  expedition,  and  make  the 
first  proof  of  their  skill  in  a  naval  battle  with  the  Carthaginians,  who 
had  held  the  dominion  of  the  sea  uncontested,  derived  down  to  theiii 
from  their  ancestors.     Nay,  so  utterly  ignorant  were  the  Romans 
111  the  art  of  ship-building,  that  it  would  have  been  almost  impos- 
iihle  for  them  to  have  put  their  design  into  effect,  had  not  fortune, 
who  always  espoused  their  cause,  by  a  mere  accident  instructed  them 
111  the  method.     For  a  Carthaginian  galley,  which  was  out  a  cruis- 
iii-,  venturing  too  near  the  shore,  chanced  to  be  stranded,  and  be- 
fore ihey  could  get  her  off*,  the  Romans,  intercepting  them,  took 
her:  and  by  the  model  of  this  galley, they  built  their  first  fleet.   But 
ihcir  way  of  insiruciing  their  seamen  in  the  use  of  the  oar  is  no  less 
remarkable,  wherein  they  proceeded  after  this  manner  :   they  caused 
banks  to  be  contrived  on  the  shore  in  the  same  fashion  and  order  as 
they  were  to  be  in  their  galleys,  and  placing  their  men  with  their 
oars  upon  the  banks,  there  they  exercised  them  ;  an  officer,  for  that 
purpose,  being  seated  in  the  midst,  who,  by  signs  with  his  hand, 
inslructed  them  how  at  once  and  all  together  they  were  to  dij)  their 
oars,  and  how  in  like  manner  to  recover  them  out  of  the  water; 
And  by  this  means  they  became  acquainted  with  the  management 
of  the  oar.     But  in  a  little  time,  finding  their  vessels  were  not  built 
with  extraordinary   art,   and   consequently  proved  somewhat  un- 
uicldly  in  working,  it  came  into  their  heads  to  recompense  this  de- 
fect, by  contriving  some  new  invention,  which  might  be  of  use  to 
ihern  in  fight.     And  then  it  was  that  they  devised  the  famous  ma- 
thiiic  called  the  cove  us ;  which  was  framed  after  this  following 
manner;  they  erected  on  the  j)row  of  their  vessels  a  round  piece  of 
limber,  of  about  a  foot  and  a  half  diameter,  and  about  twelve  feet 
loi.g;  on  the  top  whereof,  they  had  a  block  or  pulley.     Round  this 
piece  of  limber  th»  y  laid  a  stage  or  platform   of  boards,  four  feet 
^road,  and  about  eighteen  feet  long,  which  was  well  framed,  and 
lasiencd  with   iron.     The  entrance  was  long-ways,  and  it  moved 
about  the  aforesaid  upright  piece  of  timber,  as  on  a  spindle,  and 
could  be  hoisted  up  within  six  feet  of  the  top;  about  this  a  sort  of 
a  parapet,  knee  high,  which  was  defended  with  upright  bars  of  iron 
sharpened  at  the  q,\^6.\  towards  the  top  whereof  there  was  a  ring; 
through  this  ring,  fastening  a  rope,  by  the  help  of  a  pulley,  they 
hoisted  or  lowered  the  engine  at  pleasure ;  and  so  with  it  attacked 


OF  THE  ROMAN- 


ART  OF  WAR. 


243 


the  enemy's  vessels,  sometimes  on  their  bow,  and  sometimes  on 
thcii  broadside,  as  occasion  best  served.  When  they  had  i^'appled 
the  enemy  with  those  iron  sj^kcs,  if  they  happened  to  swin^  broad- 
side to  broadside,  then  they  entered  from  all  parts  ;  but  in  cas<'  they 
attacked  them  on  the  bow,  they  entered  two  and  two  by  the  help  of 
this  machine,  the  foremost  defendinj^  the  fore-pirt,  and  those  that 
followed  the  flanks,  keepin^j  the  boss  of  their  bucklers  level  with 
the  top  of  the  para])et. 

To  this  purpose,  Polybius  (accordinjj  to  the  late  most  excellent 
version)  gives  us  an  account  of  the  first  warlike  preparations  which 
the  Romans  made  by  sea.     We  may  add,  in  short,  the  order  which 
they  observed  in  drawing  up  their  fleet  for  battle,  taken  from  the 
same  author;   the  two  Consuls  were  in  the  two  admiral  gallevs,  in 
the  front  of  their  two  distinct  squadrons,  each  of  them  just  a-hcad 
of  their  divisions,  and  a-breast  of  each  other;  the  first  fleet  beinj 
posted  on  the  right,  the  second  on  the  left,  making  two  long  files  or 
lines  of  battle.     And,  whereas  it  was  necessary  to  give  a  due  space 
between  each  galley,  to  ply  their  oars,  and  keep  clear  one  of  another, 
and  to  have  their  heads  or  prows  looking  somewhat  outwards;  this 
manner  of  drawing  up  did  therefore  naturally  form  an  angle,  the 
point  whereof  was  at  the  two  admiral  galleys,  which  were  near  to- 
gether ;  and  as  their  two  lines  were  prolonged,  so  the  distance  grew 
consc(juently  wider  and  wider  towards  the  rear.     Hut,  because  the 
naval  as  well  as  thc^and  army  consisted  of  four  legions,  and  accord- 
ingly the  ships  made  four  divisions,  two  of  these  are  yet  behind  ;  of 
which  the  third  fleet,  or  third  legion,  was  drawn  up  frontways  in 
the  rear  of  the  first  and  second,  and  so  stretching  along  from  point 
to  point,  composed  a  Irianghs  whereof  the  third  line  was  the  base. 
Their  vesselsof  burden,  that  carried  their  horses  and  baggage,  were 
in  the  rear  of  these ;  and  were,  by  the  help  of  smidl  boats  provided 
for  ihiit  pu'pose,  towed  or  drawri  after  them.     In  the  rear  of  all,  was 
the  fourth  fleet  called  the  triariajisy  drawn  up  likewise  in  rank  or 
frontways,  parallel  to  the  third;  but  these  made  a  l>nger  line,  by 
which  means  the  extremities  stretched  out,  and  extended  beyond  the 
two  angles  at  the  base.     The  several  divisions  of  the  army  being 
thus  disposed,  formed,  as  is  said,  a  triangle;   the  area   within  was 
void,  but  the  base  was  thick  and  solid,  and  the  whole  body  quick, 
active,  and  very  diflj'icult  to  be  broken. 

If  wc  descend  to  a  particular  description  of  the  several  sorts  of 
ships,  we  meet  commonly  with  three  kinds,  ships  of  war,  ships  of 
burden,  and  ships  of  passage  :  the  first  for  the  most  part  rowed  with 
oars;  the  second  steered  wi'h  sails  ;  and  the  last  often  towed  with 
ropes.     Ships  of  passage  were  either  for  the  transportation  of  men, 


such  as  the  o-rXtruf^yci  or  rf  «r;AV/^f; ;  or  of  horses,  as  the  hipfia^ir.cs. 
The  ships  of  burd.n,  which  the  Roman  authors  call  rmves  onerarice, 
an  !  the  Grceian  <,^cer:Koi,  and  ^-V.^^.^  (whence  the  name  of //z./X-,>  may 
p,oj.erly  be  derived),  served  for  the  conveyance  of  victuals  and  other 
provisions,  and  sometimes  too  for  the  carryinir  over  soldiers,  as  we 
fiiKl  in  Cirsar.     Of  the  ships  of  war,  the  most  considerable  were  the 
7:avrs  hng^.  or  galleys,  so  named  from  their  forui,  which  was  the 
most  convenient  to  wield  round,  or  to  cut  their  way;  whereas  the 
ships  of  burden  were  generally  built  rounder  and  more  hollow,  that 
tl.cv  might  be  the  more  easy  to  load,  and  might  hold  the  more  goods 
The  most  remarkable  of  the/;ai>p*  lov^^,  were  the  trir^mis,  the  qua^ 
cfn;v;;;/.9,and  quinqueremis.  T^^,^>,i,  Tsr^r^^,,,  and  nsyr,.,^;  exceeding 
one  another  by  one  bank  of  oars ;  which  banks  were  raised  slopingly 
one  above  another;  and  consequently  those  which  had  most  banks 
were  built  highest,  and  rowed  with  the  greatest  strength.  Some  in- 
dcrd  fancy  a  difl*erent  original  of  these  names,  as  that  in  the  /r/r^wz>, 
for  example,  either  there  were  three  banks  one  after  the  other  on  a 
k vcb  or  three  rowers  sat  upon  one  bank  ;  or  else  three  men  tugged 
ail  to-ether  at  one  oar;  but  this  is  contrary,  not  only  to  the  autho- 
rity  of  the  classics,  but  to  the  figures  of  the  rrire7nes,  still  appearing 
in  ancient  monuments.     Besides  these,  there  were  two  other  rates, 
one  higher,  and  the  other  lower.     The  higher  rates  we  meet  wltl! 
arc  the  /icxrres,  the  hefitere^,  the  octercs,  and  so  on  to  the  'xc^rz^o.ih 
xrer?;  nay,  Polybius  relates,  that  Philip  of  Macedon,  father  to  Per- 
sens,  had  an  'iKK^ihxr.^x^  -^  which  Livy  translates,72(77»/*  quam  sex  sex- 
decim  versus  remorum  aife^ant,^  ?ish\p^'vkh  sixteen  banks;  yet  this 
>vas  much  inferior  to  the  ship  built  by  Philopater,  which  Plutarch 
tells  us  had  forty  banks.i     The  lower  rates  were  the  bireTnis  and  the 
?noneres.     The  bireme,  in  Greek  ^tT-.y,^,  or  S^irccro^,  consisted  of  two 
banks  of  oars;  of  these  the  fittest  for  service,  by  reason  of  their 
hRhtness  and  swiftness,  were  called  liburnicce,  from  the  Liburni,  a 
people  in  Dalmatia,  who  first  invented  that  sort  of  building;  for, 
being  corsairs,  they  rowed  up  and  down  in  these  light  vessels',  and 
maintained  themselves  by  the  prizes  they  took.''  Yet  in  latter  times, 
all  the  smaller  and  more  expedite  ships,  whether  they  had  more  or 
less  than  two  banks,  were  termed  in  general  liburnle  or  libur?iiccc. 
fhiis  Horace  and  Propertius  call  the  ships  which  Augustus  made 
|Jse  of  in  the  sea-engagement  at  Actium  ;  and  Florus  informs  us, 
diat  this  fleet  was  made  of  vessels  from  three  to  six  banks.'     Sue- 
tonius mentions  an  extravagant  sort  of  liburnica  invented  by  the 
emperor  Caligula,  adorned  with  jewels  in  the  poop,  with  sails  of 


I'olyb.  in  Fragment. 

^-ib.  53,  J  In  Demctrio. 


^  Dacler  on  Horace,  Epod.  1. 
1  Lib.  4.  cap.  11. 


i»44 


OF  THE   ROMAN- 


ART  ©F   WAR. 


245 


many  colours,  and  furnished  -with  large  porticos,  bat^nios,  and  din- 
ini^- looms,  besides  the  curious  rows  of  vines  and  fruit- trees  of  all 

bOltS."* 

Tlie  mopcrrs^  meniioncd  by  Livy,  was  a  galley,  bavinij;  but  one 
bingle  bank  of  oars,  of  wiiich  we  find  five  sorts  in  authors,  the  eUoti- 
£©<;,  or  actuaria^  ihc  T^/atJcovro^a?,  llie  n  yrxouKovroffci^  iht  TrivrxKovroooq^ 
and  the  1>c<ztovtc^o(;j  of  twenty,  thirty,  forty,  lifty,  and  an  huudied 
oars. 

It  may  be  observed,  that,  though  these  under-ratcs  are  supposed 
lo  have  been  l)uiit  in  the  form  of  ihe  navca  longcc^  yet  tliey  are  not 
so  generally  honoured  with  that  name;  and  sometimes  in  authors 
of  credit  wc  find  th(;n»  directly  opposed  lo  the  naves  /ungw,  and  ul 
other  times  to  the  f^ecyjfMi^  or  wai-ships. 

But  the  ships  of  war  occur  under  several  other  dificrent  denomi- 
nations, as  the  tcctix^  or  constrat£^  or  the  ajicrfx.  The  tcctx^  or 
x^^Tfljv^ffitJtTo^,  were  so  called,  because  they  had  xarar^'yftaTflt,  or  hatches; 
whtii'cas  the  a/irrt.c,  or  uC'^uktoi^  had   none.      Tiic  greater  ships,  as 

the  (jinu/r' ;iiid   i-.pwards,  seem  always  to  have  had  hatches; 

the  trinriU'i  and  <^//<';/^ca' arc  souictiines  described  otherwise ;  and 
all  bclov,  these  were  ajicrtx.  (/icero  and  other  authors  somciinus 
use  the  word  ajiliructum  for  a  particular  sort  of  ship  ;  and  Polyhiiis 
y.xru<^^xKTo(;^  for  a  t/uinquo'cmc.  Resides  these  we  meet  with  the 
riavcfi  rrjf<trat<€  and  iiavvfi  tiirritx:  The  first  were  such  as  had  beaks 
or  roatra^  necessary  lo  all  ships  which  were  to  engage  in  a  battle. 
The  others  were  such  as  had  turrets  erected  on  their  decks,  from 
whence  the  st)ldiers  used  all  manner  of  weapons  and  engines,  as  ii 
jt  had  been  on  land,  and  so  cTigaged  with  the  greatest  fury  imagi- 
nable; as  \'irgil  describes  the  light  at  Actium  : 

Pt'la^'o  crt'daa  iniuir*'  ren'/.'/xr/f 


(  I'cfuUaSf  iiiii  monies  concurrere  tnontihuff  nltcfi  ,• 

Tiiyita  ni'jle  Tiri  tuvritis  pup/n7/us  hiataut.  .'Kx.  vili.  691. 

The  oflicers  in  the  navy  were,  firixfcctus  clussis,  or  admiral,  and 
sometimes  the  duumviri^  when  two  were  joined  in  commission  to- 
gether with  the  trierarchusy  or  captain  of  a  particular  ship,  most 
properly  of  the  trireme  ;  the  gubcrnator^  or  master;  the  ceUuste^) 
or  boatswain,  and  others  of  inferior  note. 

Under  the  emperors,  as  there  were  legions  established  in  niobt 
parts  of  the  Roman  dominions,  so  they  had  constantly  fleets  in  those 
seas  which  lay  conveniently  for  the  defence  of  neighbouring  coun- 
tries. Hence  Augustus  kept  one  navy  at  Misenum  in  the  Mare  In- 
fcrum,  to  protect  and  keep  in  obedience  France,  Spain,  Mauritania, 
Egypt,  Sardinia,  and  Sicily  ;  another  at  Ravenna  in  the  Mare  Supc 

"  Sueton.  in  Calig".  cap.  57. 


:uni,  io  defend  and  bridle  Epims,Maccdon,  Achaia,  Crete,  Cyprus, 
together  with  all  Asia.  Nor  were  their  navies  only  maintained  on 
the  seas,  but  several  too  on  the  principal  rivers,  as  the  Germayiica 
'lassis,  on  the  Rhine,  the  Datmhiayia,  the  Eujihratcnsis,  &c.  to  be 
met  with  in  Tacitus,  and  other  historians.  Sec  Sir  Henry  Savil's 
dissertation  at  the  end  of  his  translation  of  Tacitus. 

To  this  subject  of  the  Roman  shipping,  we  may  add  a  very  re- 
iiiaikable  custom  of  such  as  had  escaped  a  wreck  at  sea,  which  we 
find  hinted  at  in  almost  every  place  of  the  poets,  and  often  alluded 
10  by  other  authors;  on  which  a  great  modern  critic  delivers  him- 
self to  this  purpose. 

Ii  was  a  custom  for  those  who  had  been  saved  from  a  shipwreck, 
10  have  all  the  circumstances  of  their  adventure  represented  on  a 
tablet.  Some  persons  made  use  of  their  tablet  to  move  the  com- 
passion  of  those  that  they  met,  as  they  travelled  up  and  down;  and 
by  their  charity  to  repair  their  fortunes,  which  had  suffered  so  much 
at  sea.     'i'hesc  Juvenal  describes,  Sat.  xiv.  301 : 

JMersa  rate  naufragus  anem 


Bum  rogat^  et  picta  se  tempestate  tuetnr. 

His  vessel  sunk,  the  wretch  at  some  lane's  end 
A  painted  storm  for  farthings  does  extend, 
And  lives  upon  the  picture  of  his  loss. 

For  this  purpose  they  hung  the  tablet  about  their  necks,  and  kept 
mgiiig  a  sort  of  canting  verses,  expressing  the  manner  of  their  mis- 
n  tunes  ;  almost  like  the  modern  pilgrims.     Persius,  Sat.  i.  88: 


Cantct  si  naufragiiSy  tissem 


Proivh'rim  ?    Caritas  cum  fracta  te  in  trabe  pictum 
Kx  humevo  partes  ? 

Say,  should  a  shipwrecked  sailor  sing  his  woe. 
Would  I  be  moved  to  pity,  or  bestow 
An  alms  ?     Is  this  your  season  for  a  song, 
When  your  despairing  phiz  you  bear  along, 
Daub'd  on  a  plank,  and  o'er  your  shoulders  hung  ? 

Others  hung  up  such  a  tablet  in  the  temple  of  the  particular  deity 

'  whom  they  had  addressed  themselves  in  their  exigence,  and  whose 

>sistance  had,  as  they  thought,  effected  their  safety.     This  they 

rmed  properly  votiva  tabella.     Juvenal  has  a  fling  at  the  Roman 

perstition  in  this  point,  when  he  informs  us,  that  it  was  the  business 

'  a  company  of  painters  to  draw  pictures  on  these  accounts  for  the 

cmpleof  Isis;  Sat.  xii.  27: 

Quam  votiva  testantur  fana  tabella 

Plurima,  pictorcs  quis  nescit  ab  Iside  paaci? 

Such  as  in  Isis*  dome  may  be  surveyed 

On  votive  tablets  to  the  life  portrayed 

Where  painters  are  employed  and  earn  their  bread. 

^ut  the  custom  went  much  further ;  for  the  lawyers  at  the  bar 


^46 


OF  THL  ROMAN   ART  QF  WAR 


used  to  have  tlie  case  of  the  client  expressed  in  a  pictuVc,  that,  bv 
hhowing  his  hard  fortune,  and  the  cruelty  and  injustice  of  the  ad- 
verse party,  they  might  move  the  compassion  of  the  judge.  Tliis 
Quiiiiilian  declares  himself  against  in  his  sixth  book.  Nor  was  this 
all ;  for  such  persons  as  had  escaped  in  any  fit  of  sickness,  used  to 
dedicate  a  picture  of  the  deity  whom  they  fancied  to  have  relieved 
them.  And  this  gives  us  a  light  into  the  meaning  of  Tibullus,  lib 
!.  Elcg.  3: 

A'linCt  J)ta,  nunc  ^uccurre  mim  ;  nam  posse  meden 
J*>rf"  (locet  trmplin  mii^'"  'fhcUa  tuts. 

Now,  j^oddess,  now  thy  loriur'd  suppliant  heal; 
Tor  votive  paints  attest  thy  sacred  skill. 

Thus  some  Christians  in  ancient  times,"  upon  a  signal  recovcn 
of  their  health,  used  to  offer  a  sort  of  medal  in  gold  or  silver,  on 
whicli  their  own  effigies  were  expressed,  in  honour  of  the  saint  whom 
they  thought  themselves  obliged  to  lor  their  deliverance.  And  thi.. 
custom  still  obtains  in  the  popish  countries.* 


"  Casaubon  in  Persium,  Sat.  1.  v.  88 


Dacier  on  Horace,  lib  1.  Od.  '• 


PART  II.— BOOK  V. 


MISCELLANY  CUSTOMS  OF  THE  ROMANS 


CHAPTER  L 


OF  THE  PRIVATE  SPORTS  AND  GAMES. 

A  GREAT  part  of  the  Roman  pomp  and  superstition  was  taken 
jp  in  their  games  and  shows,  and  therefore  very  many  of  their  cus- 
toms have  a  dependence  on  those  solemnities.  But,  in  our  way,  w« 
should  not  pass  by  the  private  sports  and  diversions  ;  not  that  they 
iif  worth  our  notice  in  themselves,  but  because  many  passages  and 
allusions  in  authors  would  otherwise  be  very  difficult  to  apprehend. 

The  private  games  particularly  worth  our  remark  are  the  La^ 
'ruiicu//,  the  Ta/i  and  Tessera:^  the  PiU,  the  Par  impar,  and  tho 
Trochus. 

1  he  game  at  Latrunculi  seems  to  have  been  much  of  the  same 
nature  as  the  modern  chess;  the  original  of  it  is  generally  referred 
to  Palamedes's  invention  at  the  siege  of  Troy ;  though  Seneca  at- 
tributes it  to  Chilon,  one  of  the  seven  Grecian  sages;  and  some 
fancy  that  Pyrrhus,  king  of  Epirus,  contrived  this  sport,  to  instruct 
his  soldiers,  after  a  diverting  manner,  in  the  military  art.  How- 
ever, it  is  certain,  it  expresses  the  chance  and  order  of  war  so  very 
happily,  that  no  place  can  lay  so  just  a  claim  to  the  invention  as  the 
ramp.     Thus  the  ingenious  Vida  begins  his  poem  on  this  subject: 

I.udimus  effigiem  belliy  simulataqiie  veris 
Pralia,  buxo  aciesjictas,  et  Indicra  regna  ; 
XJt  gemim  inter  se  I'eges,  albusqne,  nigcrque^ 
Pro  laude  oppositi,  certant  biculoribus  avmis. 

War's  liarmles3  shape  we  sing-,  and  boxen  trains 
Of  youih,  encount'ring  on  the  cedar  plains; 
How  two  tall  kings,  by  different  armour  known. 
Traverse  the  field,  and  combat  for  renown. 

1  he  chess-men  which  the  Romans  used  were  generally  of  waxoi 
/lass;  their  common  name  was  calculi^  or  latrunculi:    The  poets 


MH 


lllL   PUIVATK  SPORTR 


OF  THE  ROMANS. 


249 


sometimes  term  them  latrones^  wlicncc  latrunculus  was  at  firbt 
derived  ;  for  latro  among  the  ancients  signified  at  first  a  servant  (as 
the  word  knave  in  English),  and  afterwards  a  .soldier. 

Seneca  has  mentioned  this  play  oftencr,  perhaps,  than  any  othc 
Homnn  author;  |)articularly  in  one  place,  he  has  a  very  remarkal)le 
story,  in  which  he  designs  to  give  us  an  example  of  wonderful  reso- 
lution and  contempt  of  death ;  though  some  will  be  more  apt  to  in- 
terpret  it  as  an  instance  of  insensible  stupidity.  The  story  is  this  : 
one  Canius  Julius  (whom  he  extols  very  much  on  other  accounts; 
had  been  sentenced  to  death  by  Caligula;  the  centurions  coming 
by  with  a  tribe  of  malefactors,  and  ordering  him  to  bear  them  com- 
pany (()  execution,  happened  to  find  him  engaged  at  this  game.  Ca- 
nius upon  his  first  summons,  presently  fell  to  counting  his  men,  and 
bidding  his  antagonist  be  sure  not  to  brag  falsely  of  the  victory  after 
bis  death  ;  he  only  desired  the  centurion  to  bear  witness,  that  hf 
had  one  man  upon  the  board  more  than  his  companion;  and  so 
very  readily  joined  himself  to  the  poor  wretches  that  were  going  tc 
sufTer.* 

Bui  the  largest  and  most  accurate  account  of  the  latrunculi^  given 
us  by  the  ancients,  is  to  be  met  \\\\\\  in  the  poem  to  Piso ;  which 
some  will  have  to  be  Ovid's,  others  Lucan's,  and  many  the  work  oi 
an  unknown  author. 

The  Tali  and  Tcsscrd-^  by  reason  of  so  many  passages  in  authors 
equally  applicable  to  both,  have  oftentimes  been  confounded  with 
one  another,  and  by  some  distinguished  as  a  separate  game  from  the 
iusus  alciV.oY  dice;  whereas,  properly  speaking,  the  Greeks  and 
Romans  had  two  sorts  of  games  at  dice,  the  ludua  /a/or/rw,or  play  a*, 
cock-all,  and  the  ludiis  tcsscrarum,  or  what  we  call  dice.  The\ 
played  at  the  first  with  the  foui  luny  and  at  the  other  with  three  tes- 
sera. The  tali  had  but  four  sides,  marked  w  iih  four  opposite  num 
bers  ;  one  side  with  a  /Tr.v,  and  the  opposite  with  a  quatre  ;  onn  with 
an  ace,  and  the  contrary  with  a  sice.  The  dice  had  six  faces,  four 
marked  with  the  same  number  as  the  tali^  and  the  two  other:* 
with  a  r/tw^and  a  cinque,  always  one  against  the  other;  so  that  iu 
both  plays  the  upper  number  and  the  lower,  cither  on  the  talufi  o: 
cessera,  constantly  made  seven. 

There  were  very  severe  laws  in  force  against  these  plays,  forbid 
ding  the  use  of  them   at  all  seasons,  only  during  the  Saturnaliu 
though  they  gamed  ordinarily  at  other  times,  notwithstanding  th" 
prohibition.     lUit  there  was  one  use  made  of  them  at  feasts  and  cu 
tcrtainments  which  perhaps  did  not  fall  under  the  extent  of  the  lav, 

*  Seneca  de  Tranquil.  Aniini,  cap.  14. 


and  that  was  to  throw  dice  who  should  command  in  chief,  and  have 
the  power  of  prescribing  rules  at  a  drinking  bout;  who  in  Horace  is 
called  arbiter  bibcndi. 

They  threw  both  the  tali  and  the  tesserds  out  of  a  long  box,  for 
which  they  had  several  names,  asfritillu7n,/iyrgus,  turricula,  Irca 

There  are  many  odd  terms  scattered  up  and  down  in  authors,  by 
which  they  signified  their  fortunate  and  unfortunate  casts ;  we  may 
take  notice  of  the  best  and  the  worst.  The  best  cast  with  the  tali 
was,  when  there  came  up  four  different  numbers,  as  tres,  quatre, 
,Tr,  ace  :  The  best  with  the  dice  was  three  sices  ;  the  common  term' 
fur  both  was  Fen  us  or  basilicus  ;  the  poorest  cast  in  both  having 
^hc  name  of  canis.  Pcrsius  oi,poscs  the  senio,  and  the  ranicula,  as 
?he  best  and  worst  chances  : 

Quid  dexter  senio  fnrcty 

Scire  evat  in  votis  ,-  damnona  canicuia  quantvm 

Liuleret,  auifust.e  colh  nonfaf/ier  Orc^,     Sat.  iii.  4J3. 

But  then  nny  study  was  to  cog  the  dice. 

And  dexterously  to  throw  the  lucky  Sice  • 

To  bl.un  ./imes-ace  that  swept  my  stakes  away  •     ^ 

And  watch  the  box  for  fear  they  should  convey  i 

False  bones,  and  put  upon  me  in  the  play.  5         drfdex. 

The  wiser  and  seveixr  Romans  thought  this  sedentary  diversion 
iit  only  for  aged  men,  ^vho  could  not  so  well  employ  themselves  in 
any  surrmg  recreation.  "  Let  them  (says  old  Cato  in  Tully)  have 
utir  armour,  their  horses  and  their  spears  ;  let  them  take  their  club 

nd  their  javelin  ;  let  them  have  their  swimming  matches  and  their 
iciccs,  so  they  do  but  leave  us,  among  the  numerous  sports,  the  taU 
:M  xh^tesser^r    But  the  general  corruption  of  manners  made  the 

ise  quite  otherwise.     Juvenal  xiv.  4  ; 

.SV  damnosa  seiitm  Juvm  uwu,  ludit  et  h^res 
Bidlatvs.purx^oque  eudem  movet  armafvitillo. 

If  gaming  does  an  aged  sire  entice,  -v 

Then  my  young  master  swiftly  learns  the  vice,  ( 

And  shakes,  in  hanging-sleeves,  the  little  box  anddice.5  ^nYiu:  v 
Xor  was  it  probable,  that  this  game  should  be  practised  with  any 
niodcration  in  the  city,  when  the  emperors  xvere  commonly  profess- 
^cl  admirers  of  it.  Augustus  himself  played  unreasonably,  without 
^ny  regard  to  the  time  of  the  year.^  But  the  great  master  of  thi^ 
^rt  was  the  emperor  Claudius,  who  by  his  constant  practice  (even 
^^  he  rode  about  in  his  chariot)  gained  so  much  experience,  as  to 
compose  a  book  on  the  subject.  Hence  Seneca,  in  his  sarcastical 
•eiationof  the  emperor's  apotheosis,  when  after  a  great  many  ad ven- 
'^'•es  he  has  at  last  brought  him  to  hell,  makes  the  infprnn]  In.i^,.. 

^  Sueton.  All"-,  c.in.  7\ 


250 


rilE  PiaVATl.  SPORT5 


OF  THE  ROMANS. 


251 


? 


condcnin  him  ^as  the  inobt  proper  punishment  in  the  world)  to  play 
continuully  at  dice  with  a  box  that  had  the  bottom  out;  which  kep^. 
him  always  in  hopes,  and  yet  always  baulked  his  expectations  : 

vV«m  qnotiea  miaaunis  erat  resoriante  fn'tilh, 
UtriKjut  nubitucto  futfiebat  tessera  J'undo  ; 
CiiftK/ite  recollecios  uuderrt  mittere  taJos^ 
Jjiisiiro  .timi/is  senipft;  sempcr(/iie  Jtetcnti^ 
JJeceffcre  fidem  .■   repigit^  (lig-ifosf/ne  per  ipsos 
Fidlax  ussidno  dilabitur  alea  furto. 
Sic  cum  jam  summi  tuug-iuUnr  culminn  monti':, 
Irrita  Sisypliio  zolvuntur pondera  olio. 

For  wliensoc'er  he  shook  the  box  to  cast. 
The  rattling-  dice  delude  his  eag-er  haste  ; 
And  if  he  tried  aj^ain,  tlje  waj^g-ish  bone 
Insensibly  was  tiiroiig-ji  his  lingers  ^--one ;  ^ 

Still  he  was  throwing-,  yet  he  ne't-r  had  thrown.    3 
So  weary  Sisyphus,  when  now  he  sees 
The  wclconie  lop,  and  feeds  his  joyful  eyes, 
Straight  the  rude  stone,  as  cruel  fate  command^', 
Fal!  i  sadly  down,  and  meets  his  restless  hands. 

The  ancients  had  four  sorts  oi /li/te  or  balls,  used  for  exercise  an* 
diversion.  Thcyb///.v  or  balloon,  w  hich  they  struck  about  with  thei: 
arm,  guarded  for  that  purpose  with  a  wooden  bracer;  or,  if  the 
balloon  was  little,  they  used  only  their  fists.  The  /lilo  trigonalis^  the 
same  as  our  common  balls;  to  play  with  this,  there  used  to  stand 
three  persons  in  a  triangle,  striking  it  round  from  one  to  another , 
he  who  first  let  it  come  to  the  ground,  was  the  loser. c  Pagunica^  a 
bull  stufi*ed  with  feathers,  which  Martial  thus  describes,  xiv.  45: 

Ilaec  gttiC  djj/uil/  turgrt  Paganica  plnma^ 
Polle  minim  hixa  est,  et  minus  arcta  pila. 

The  last  sort  was  the  /iar/iastu?n^  a  harder  kind  of  ball,  which  they 
played  with,  dividing  into  two  companies,  and  striving  to  throw  i' 
into  one  another's  goals,  which  was  the  conquering  cast. 

The  game  at  /uir  im/iar,  or  even  and  odd,  is  not  worth  taking  no 
tice  of,  any  farther  than  to  observe,  that  it  was  not  only  proper  to 
the  children,  as  it  is  generally  fancied  ;  for  we  may  gather  from  Sue- 
tonius, that  it  was  sometimes  used  at  feasts  and  entertainments,  in 
the  same  manner  as  the  dice  and  chess.'' 

The  trochua  has  been  often  thought  the  same  as  the  turbo,  or  top , 
or  else  of  like  nature  with  our  billiards  ;  but  both  these  opinions  arc 
now  exploded  by  the  curious.  The  trochus  therefore  was  properly 
a  hoop  of  iron,  five  or  six  feet  diameter,  set  all  over  in  the  inside 
with  iron  rings.  The  boys  and  young  men  used  to  whirl  this  along, 
as  our  children  do  wooden  hoops,  directing  it  with  a  rod  of  iron, 
.'laving  a  wooden  handle;  which  rod  the  Grecians  called  £A5tT>rf,and 


the  Romans  radius.  There  was  need  of  great  dexterity  to  guide 
the  hoop  right.  In  the  mean  time,  the  rings,  bv  the  clattering  which 
ihcy  made,  not  only  gave  the  people  notice  to  keep  out  of  the  way 
but  contrd)uled  very  much  to  the  boys'  diversion.-  We  must  take- 
.arc  not  to  think  this  only  a  childish  exercise,  since  wc  find  Ho- 
vacc  ranking  it  w  ith  other  manly  sports  :* 

Lndcre  qui  nescit,  campestribus  abstinet  armiu 
Jfidoctu^qucpiU,  discive,  trochive  guiescif: 


Dacier  on  >Iorace,  Book.  '2.  Sat.  2. 


•^Sueton.  in  Aug-,  cap.  71. 


CHAPTER  II. 

-FTHE    CIRCENSIAN    SlIOWS;    AND    FIRST,  OF  THE    PEXTATHLUM,    THr 
CHARIOT  RACES,  THE  LUDUS  TROJ^,  AKD  THE  PYRRHICA  S^LTATIo' 

IT  is  hard  to  light  on  any  tolerable  division  which  would  take  in 
all  the  public  sports  and  shows;  but  the  most  accurate  seems  to  be 
that  which  ranks  them  under  two  heads,  Ludi  Circenses,  and  Ludi 
^cenici:  But  because  this  division  is  made  only  in  respect  of  the 
form  and  manner  of  the  solemnities,  and  of  the  place  of  action,  there 
IS  need  of  another  to  express  the  end  and  design  of  their  institu- 
tion;  and  this  may  be  Ludi,  Sacri,  Fotivi,  and  FuneSres. 

The  Circensian  plays  may  very  well  include  the  representations 
of  sea-fights  and  sports  performed  in  the  amphitheatres;  for  the 
former  were  commonly  exhibited  in  the  circus,  fitted  for  that  use- 
and  when  we  meet  with  the  Aamnachi^,  as  places  distinct  from  the' 
circus,  w^e  suppose  the  structure  to  have  been  of  the  same  nature 
And,  as  to  the  amphitheatres,  they  were  erected  for  the  more  con- 
venient celebration  of  some  particular  shows,  which  used  before  to 
be  presented  in  the  circus,  so  that  in  this  extent  of  the  head,  wc 
may  inform  ourselves  of  the  Pentathlum,  of  the  chariot-racel,  of 
^he  Ludus  Troj^,  of  the  shows  of  wild  beasts,  of  the  combats  of  the 
S'aciiators,  and  of  the  Xaiimachi<z. 
The  Pentathlum  or  Quinquertium,  as  most  of  their  other  sports 
as  borrowed  from  the  Grecian  games  ;  the  five  exercises  that  com^ 
.^oscd  It,  were  running,  wrestling,  leaping,  throwing,  and  boxing, 
ne  two  last  have  something  particularly  worth  our  notice ;  the  for  - 

•  Dacier  on  Horace,  Book  3.  Od.  24,  f  jje  Art.  Poet. 


252 


TIIK  CIRCENSIAN  SHOWS 


OF  THE  ROMANS. 


sr5S 


I 


mcr  of  them  being  sometimes  performed  with  the  discusy  and  t"he 
other  v/itli  the  ccstus.  The  ditscua  or  quoit,  made  of  stone,  iron,  or 
copper,  five  or  six  fint^crs  broad,  and  more  than  a  foot  long,  inchn- 
ing  10  i'A.  oval  figure :  They  sent  this  to  a  vast  distance,  by  the  help 
of  a  leaiKern  thong  tied  round  the  person's  hand  that  threw.  Seve- 
ral learned  men  liave  fancied,  that,  instead  of  the  aforesaid  thonq, 
they  made  use  of  a  twist  or  braid  of  hair ;  but  it  is  possible  they 
might  be  deceived  by  that  passage  of  Claudian  : 

Qxiia  meHus  vibrata  pner  vertigine  molli 

JMemOra  r  >tet  ?  vertat  quis  niavmora  crine  supino? 

■\Vii:il  youtli  could  wind  his  hmbs  with  happier  care  ? 
Or  Hing  the  marble  quoit  with  tos3cd-back  hair  ? 

Where  the  poet  by  crine  8Ujii?io  intends  only  to  express  the  ex 
tremc  motion  of  the  person  throwing;  it  being  very  natural  on  that 
account  to  cast  back  his  head,  and  so  make  the  hair  fly  out  behind 
him.^ 

Homer  has  made  Ajaxand  Ulysses  both  great  artists  at  this  sport: 
and  Ovid,  when  he  brings  in  Apollo  and  Hyacinth  playing  at  it. 
gives  an  elegant  description  of  the  exercise  :^ 

Corpora  veste  levant^  et  succopin^rtis  olivx 
Splendesciinty  tatique  inetini  certamina  disci  ; 
Quern  p)iuit  aaias  lihratum  Phcebus  in  uiirrui 
JMisit^  et  opponilas  disjccit  pondere  nubes. 
Deciilit  in  solidam  loug'o  post  tempore  terrain 
I'ondui<i  et  exhibuit  junctain  cum  viribjis  artem. 

They  strip,  and  wash  their  naked  limbs  with  oil. 
To  whirl  the  quoit  and  urq-e  the  sj)ortive  toil. 
And  first  the  ^od  liis  well-poised  marble  flung, 
Cut  the  weak  air,  and  bore  the  clouds  along: 
Sounding,  at  last,  the  massy  circle  fell, 
And  siiewcd  his  strength  a  rival  to  his  skill. 

Scaliger,  who  attributes  the  inveniion  of  the  whole  Pcmaihiun: 
Xo  the  rude  country  people,   is  of  opinion,  that  the  throwing  the 
discus  is  but  an  improvement  of  their  old  sport  of  casting  their 
Lihcep-hooks :  This  conjecture  seems  very  likely  to  have  been  boi 
"owed  from  a  passage  of  Homer,  II.  •^.  ^  t*;. 

'H  J'f  ^*  t^ito'Toibcivt)  TTtTXTXi  ^««  /3i<5  uyiXxlxi;^ 
Torrov  ^xirog  uyuveq  uTri^QxXe. 

\s  when  some  sturdy  hind  his  sheep-hook  throws, 
Which,  whirling,  lights  among  the  distant  cows; 
So  far  the  hero  casts  o'er  all  the  marks. 

.Vnd  indeed,  the  judgment  of  the  same  critic,  that  these  exercises 
owe  their  original  to  the  life  of  shepherds,  is  no  more  than  what 
his  admired  Virgil  has  admirably  taught  him  in  the  second  Georgic. 
527: 


'-  Dacicr  on  Horace,  Book  1.  Od.  8. 


■^  Metamorphos.  10 


fpse  dies  agitat  festos  ;  subitusque  per  herbuui, 
Ignis  nbi  in  viediOf  ct  socii  cratei-a  coronant^ 
Te  libaus  J^nxe  vocaty  pecorisque  mag-istris 
Velocis  Jaculi  certamina  ponit  in  vlmo  ; 
Corporaqne  agresti  tiudat  prctdnra  paUstra. 

When  any  niral  holy-days  invite 

His  genius  forth  to  innocent  deliglit ; 

Un  earth's  fair  bed,  beneath  some  sacred  shade, 

Amidst  his  equal  friends  carelessly  laid. 

He  sings  thee,  Bacchus,  patron  of  the  vine. 

rhebeechen  bowl  foams  with  a  flood  of  wine; 

\ot  to  the  loss  of  reason,  or  of  strength  : 

To  active  games,  and  manly  sports  at  length 

Their  mirth  ascends;  and  with  full  veins  they  see 

AVho  can  the  best  at  better  trials  be.  cowlex. 

The  Cefitus  were  either  a  sort  of  leathern  guards  for  the  hands^ 
.imposed  of  thongs,  and  commonly  filled  with  lead  or  iron  to  add 
brce  and  weight  to  the  blow ;  or,  according  to  others,  a  kind  of 
\'.iiirl-bats  or  bludgeons  of  wood,  with  lead  atone  end  ;  though  Sea- 
iger  censures  the  last  opinion  as  ridiculous ;  and  therefore  he  derives 
;he  word  from  y-eVav,  a  girdle  or  belt.'     This  exercise  is  most  ad- 
mirably described  by  Virgil,  in  the  combat  of  Dares  and  Entellusi 
.fjieid.  5.  The  famous  artist  at  the  cestus,  Eryx  of  Sicily,  wasover- 
romc  at  last  at  his  own  weapons  by  Hercules.     Pollux  too  was  as 
';rc.it  a  master  of  this  art  as  his  brother  Castor  at  encounters  on 
horseback.  The  fight  of  Pollux  and  Amytus,  with  the  cestus^  is  ex- 
tllcntly  related  by  Theocritus,  Idyllium  30. 

The  CHARIOT-RACES  occur  as  frequently  as  any  of  the  Circensian 
ports.  The  most  remarkable  thing,  belonging  to  them,  was  the  fac- 
■ions  or  companies  of  the  charioteers;  according  to  which  the  whole 
own  was  divided,  some  favouring  one  company,  and  some  another. 
The  four  ancient  companies  were  the  Prasina,  the  Russata,  the  jilba 
r  Albata^  and  the  Veneta  ;  the  green,  the  red,  the  white,  and  the  sky- 
•  oloured  or  sea-coloured.  This  distinction  was  taken  from  the  colour 
♦jf  their  liveries,  and  is  thought  to  have  borne  some  allusion  to  the 
four  seasons  of  the  year;  the  first  resembling  the  spring,  when  all 
'hings  are  green ;  the  next,  the  fiery  colour  of  the  sun  in  the  sum- 
mer; the  third,  the  hoar  of  autumn ;  and  the  last,  the  clouds  of 
winter.    The  PraaiJia  and  the  Veneta  are  not  so  easy  names  as  the 
other  two ;  the  former  is  derived  from  9r^<*o-ov,  a  leek,  and  the  other 
horn  Veneti,  or  the  Venetians,  a  people  that  particularly  affect  that 
olour.     The  most  taking  company  were  commonly  the  green, 
'^specially  under  Caligula,  Nero,  and  the  following  emperors ;  and 
:» the  time  of  Juvenal,  as  he  hints  in  his  eleventh  Satire,  and  with 
I  fme  stroke  of  his  pen  handsomely  censures  the  strange  pleasui*e 
'^hich  the  Romans  took  in  the  sights,  193  : 

'  D(^  Re  Poetica,  lib.  1.  cap.  23. 
f54 


'^34 


llfE  CIRC£NSIAN   SHOWS 


I 


OF  THE  ROMANS. 


255 


'Jill hi  puce 


Immenfta-  ninu<eque  licet  ,ri  dicerc  plebis^ 
Totam  hodie  Romam  circus  capit,  et  frajror  auren. 
Pevcntit^  eventum  viridia  quo  colligo  panni  : 
JVu?n  si  deficerety  mastam  attomtamque  vidcres 
Hutic  tirbemy  vefvti  Cannumrn  in  puiverc  victis 
Consitlibus. 

Thistlay  all  Rome  (if  I  may  be  allowed. 

Without  ott'ence  to  such  a  numerous  crowd, 

To  say  all  r<ome)  will  in  the  circus  sweat ; 

Echoes  already  to  their  shouts  repeat. 

Methinks  I  lu  ar  the  cry — Atvarjy  away. 

The  Green  have  -won  the  honour  of  the  day. 

Oh  !  should  these  sports  be  but  one  year  forborne, 

Konie  would  in  tears  her  loved  diversion  mourn  : 

And  that  would  now  a  cause  of  sorrow  yield 

Great  as  the  loss  of  Cannae  s  fatal  field. '         '  co.vorefe. 

The  emperor  Domitian,as  Suetonius  informs  us,  added  two  nc\? 
companies  to  the  former,  the  Golden  and  the  FurplcJ  Xiphilan  call- 
them  the  Golden  and  the  Silver;  but  this  seems  to  be  a  mistake,  b, 
cause  the  silver  liveries  would  not  have  been  enough  to  distin^uisl 
from  the  white.  But  these  new  comj)anies  were  soon  after  laia 
down  again  by  the  following  emperors.'' 

In  ordinary  reading,  we  meet  only  with  the  7%^-,  and  the  Qa^ 
dritr^v;  but  they  had  sonjetimes  their  Seju^cs,  Sefitemjuges,  5(c 
And  Suetonius  assures  us,  that  Nero,  when  he  was  a  performer  i:. 
the  Olympic  games,  made  use  of  a  Decemjugif,-^  a  chariot  draw:. 
with  ten  horses  coupled  together.'  The  same  emperor  sometime- 
brought  in  pairs  of  camels  to  run  the  Circo  instead  of  horses  ;"•  an. 
Ileliogabulus  obliged  elephants  to  the  same  service." 

The  races  were  commonly  ended  at  seven  turns  round  the  meu 
though  upon  extraordinary  occasions,  we  now  and  then  meet  witl 
fewer  heats.  In  the  like  manner  the  usual  number  of  missus,  or 
matches,  were  twenty-four,  though  sometimes  a  far  greater  numbe; 
was  exhibited  For  Suetonius  tells  us,  that  the  emperor  Domitiai. 
presented  a  hundred  matches  in  one  day."  De  la  Cerda  will  have  m 
believe  it  is  not  meant  of  the  number  of  the  matches  ;  but  only  om 
of  the  chariots,  so  as  to  make  no  more  than  twenty-five  ?mssus ;  bu' 
his  opinion  is  not  taken  notice  of  by  the  critics  who  have  comment 
ed  on  Suetonius.  Scrvius,Pon  that  verse  of  Virgil,  Geor.  iii.  18. 

Centum  qtiadriji/ifos  aq-itabo  adfunu7ia  curnis, 
;akes  occasion  to  inform  us,  that  anciently  there  were  always  twen- 
ty-five matches  of  cliariots,  four  in  every  match,  so  as  to  make  a 
hundred  in  all.     The  last  ?nissus  was  set  out  at  the  charge  of  the 


'  Domitian.  cap.  7. 
^  Lips.  Com.  in  Locum. 
'  Suet.  Ner.  c.  24, 
"  Idem,  cap.  1'^^ 


*■•  Lamprid.  in  Hcliog"ab 
°  Doniit.  cap.  4 
?  Ad  Geor.  3. 


,.eopIc,  who  made  a  gathering  for  that  purpose  ;  and  was  therefore 
tailed  JErarius  ;  but,  when  this  custom  of  a  supernumerary  missus 
was  laid  aside,  the  matches  were  no  more  than  twenty-four  at  a  time; 
vet  the  last  four  chariots  still  kept  the  name  of  missus  ararius. 

The  time  when  the  races  should  begin  was  anciently  given  notice 
of  bv  sound  of  trumpet.  But  afterwards  the  common  sign  was  the 
piafi/ia^  or  napkin,  hung  out  at  the  Praetor's  or  the  chief  magistrate's 
seal.     Hence  Juvenal  calls  the  Megalensian  games, 

yMeirnlesiacce  spectacula  mappx.      Sat.  11.  191. 

The  common  reason  given  for  this  custom  is,  that  Nero  being 
once  at  dinner,  and  the  people  making  a  great  noise,  desiring  that 
the  sports  might  begin,  the  emperor  threw  the  napkin  he  had  in 
his  hand  out  of  the  window,  as  a  token  that  he  had  granted  their 
request. 

The  victors  in  these  sports  were  honoured  with  garlands,  coro- 
nets, and  other  ornaments,  after  the  Grecian  manner;  and,  very 
oticn,  with  considerable  rewards  in  money  :  insomuch  that  Juvenal 
makes  one  eminent  charioteer  able  to  buy  an  hundred  lawyers : 


'Hinc  centum  patrimonia  causidicorumy 


Parte  alia  solum  russati  pone  lacemce.     Sat.  vii.  113. 

It  has  been  already  hinted,  that  they  reckoned  the  conclusion  ot 
-he  race,  from  the  passing  by  the  meta  the  seventh  time :  and  this 
Propertius  expressly  confirms.  Lib.  2.  Eleg.  24. 

Aiit  prius  infecto  deposcit  prxmia  cursu, 
Septima  guam  metam  triverit  arte  rota  ? 

What  charioteer  would  with  the  crown  be  graced. 
Ere  his  seventh  wheel  the  mark  has  lightly  passed  ? 

So  that  the  greatest  specimen  of  art  and  sleight  appears  to  have 
jcen,  to  avoid  the  meta  handsomely,  when  they  made  their  turns; 
otherwise  the  chariot  and  the  driver  would  come  into  great  danger 
as  well  as  disgrace : 


'Metaque  fervidis 


Evitata  votis.  HoR.  Od.  1. 

On  this  account  it  is  that  Theocritus,  when  he  gives  a  relation  of 
ihe  exercises  in  which  they  instructed  young  Hercules,  assigns  him 
in  this  point,  as  a  matter  of  the  greatest  consequence,  his  own  father 
or  his  tutor: 

'ATC>ecX£6)(;  KecuTTovroe,  r^o)^u  cu^ixfec  06^et^eti, 
^AfJL(pirpvuy  ov  'Xcti^x<piXci  ^^oveav  iaiacta-Ktv 
AoTa?,  tV/  f4,iXet  ToXXet  Bouv  e|>;^«T'  ayoivuv 
"^ A^fii  Iv  'iT'TtQaTU)  Ktif^r/Xtec*  xxi  ct  actyiiq 


^^^  THE  CIRCENSIAN  SHOWS 

To  drive  the  chariot,  and  with  steady  skill 

To  turn,  and  yet  not  break  the  bend'inj,'  wheel, 

Ampliytrio  kindly  did  instruct  his  son  ; 

Great  in  that  art;  for  lie  himself  had  won 

Vast  precious  prizes  on  the  Ar|,nve  plains: 

And  still  the  chariot  which  !»e  drove  remains,  / 

Ne'er  hurt  i*  the  course,  though  lime  had  broke  the  iallintj  rciii'iA 

They  who  desire  to  be  informed  of  the  exact  manner  of  these  racch. 
>vhich  certainly  was  very  noble  and  diverting,  may  possibly  receive 
as  much  pleasure  and  satisfaction  from  the  description  which  Virr^il 
lias  left  us  of  ihcm  in  short,  as  they  could  expect  from  the  siL^ht  I 
self.     Geor.  iii.  103: 

JVo7j;i<?  Tides  ?  cum  prxcipiti  certaminc  campum 

CorvipuerCy  iniuntqut  vffusi  carcere  ctin-us  ; 

Cum  spes  arrectiB  Juve?ium,  CTuUantiuque  fiaunt 

Corda  pavov  ptilsana  :  illi  instant  verbere  torto, 
E(  proni  dant  lora  :   volat  vi  fei^'idiis  axis. 
Jamquc  fiumilts,Jamguc  elnti  sublime  videntur 
Jlera  per  vacuum  ft  rri^  atque  assun^erc  in  aura<! 
.Yea  mora  nee  rrqines :  at  fuhue  nimbu!^  arena- 
Tollitur  ;  humescunt  spnmis  Jlatuquc  sequentum  .- 
Tantus  amor  laudum,  taritit  est  victoria  euro:, 

flast  thou  beheld,  when  from  the  goal  they  starj. 

The  youthful  charioteers  with  beating  heart 

Rush  to  the  race  ;  and  panting  scarcely  bear 

Th'  extremes  of  fevVish  liopes  and  chilling  fear 

Stoop  to  the  reins,  and  lash  with  all  their  force ;' 

The  flying  chariot  kindles  in  the  course. 

And  now  a-low,  and  now  a-loft  they  fly. 

As  borne  through  air,  and  seem  to'touch  the  sky 

No  stop,  no  stay,  but  clouds  of  sand  arise, 

Spurned  and  cast  backward  on  the  follower's  eyes; 

1  he  hindmost  blows  the  foam  upon  the  first; 

Such  IS  the  love  of  praise,  and  honourable  thirst.  rniut.N 

The  Traja,ov  Ludus  Troj^,  is  generally  referred  to  the  invention 
of  Ascanius.  It  was  celebrated  by  companies  of  boys  neatly  dressed, 
and  furnished  with  little  arms  and  weapons,  who  mustered  in  the 
public  Circus.   They  were  taken,  for  the  most  part,  out  of  the  no- 
blest families  ;   and  the  captain  of  them  had  the  honourable  tide  of 
Prince/is  Juventutis  ;  being  sometimes  next  heir  to  the  empire,  and 
seldom  less  than  the  son  of  a  principal  senator.     This  custom  is  so 
very  remarkable,  that  it  would  be  an  unpardonable  omission,  not  to 
give  the  whole  account  of  it  in  Virgil's  own  words  ;  especially,  be- 
cause the  poet,  using  all   his  art  and  beauties  on  this  subject,'  as  a 
compliment  to  Augustus  (a  great  admirer  of  the  sport)  has  left  us  a 
most  inimitable  description.     jEneid.  5.  v.  545. 

At  pater  ^neas,  nondum  ccrtamine  misso^ 
Custodem  ad  sese  comitemque  impubis  liili 
Epytidem  vocnt,  etfidam  sic  fat  ur  ad  aurem  .- 
Vadc  age,  et  ^scanio,  si  jim  puenle  paratum 


OF  THE  ROMANS. 

,ig^men  habet  secum,  cursusque  instruxit  eguonan, 
JJitcat  avo  turmas,  et  sese  ostendat  in  armls. 
Die,  ait.     Ipse  omnc7n  longo  decedere  circo 
Infusiim  popidum,  et  campos  jubet  esse  patentes 
Jncedunt  puen,  paHterque  ante  ora  parention 
Frifnatis  lucent  in  equis  .-  quos  omnis  euntes 
Trinncri^e  mirata  femit  Troj.eque  juventus. 
Omnibus  in  morem  tonsa  coma  pressa  corona  : 
Cornea  biria  ferunt  pr.rfxa  hastilia  ferro  ,- 
Pars  leves  humero  pliareiras  .-  It  pectore  summo 
Flexilis  obtorti  per  collum  circulus  auri. 
Tres  equitum  nwnero  turmce,  tennque  vagantur 
Ditctores :  Pueri  bis  sent  quemque  secUti, 
.^gmine  partito  fulgent  paribusqice  Jllugistris. 
Una  acics  juvenum,  ducit  quam  parvus  ovan tern 
{^I'omen  avi  referens)  Priamus,  tua  clara.  Polite, 
Py^ogenies,  auctwa  Italos  ;  quern  Thracius  albis 
Portat  equus  bicolor  viaculis :  vestigia  primi 
Alba  pedisyfronteuujue  osteiitans  arduus  albam. 
.ilter  Mys,  genus  unde  Jltti  duxere  Latini  : 
Pa)-ou8  Ati/s,  pueroque  pner  dilectus  lulo. 
Extremusformdque  ante  omnes  pulcher,  lulus 
Sidoiiio  est  invectus  equo ,-  quern  Candida  Dido 
Esse  sui  dederat  inonimcritian  et  pigims  amoris. 
Cwtera  Trinacriis  pubes  seiiions  Jiccsta.- 
Fertur  equis. 

Excipiunt  plausu  pavidos,  gaudentque  tuentes 
Bardanulty  veterumque  agnoscunt  ora  parentum, 
Postquam  omnevi  Leti  concessum  oculosque  suoruvx 
Lusiravere  in  equis  .-  signum  clamore  paratii- 
Epytides  longe  dedit,  insonuitque  flagello. 
Olli  discurrere  pares,  atque  ugmina  tenii 
Htductis  solvere  choris  •  rursuaque  vocati 
Convertere  vias,  infestaque  tela  tulere. 
Inde  alios  ineunt  cursiis,  aliosque  recursus, 
.idversis  spatiis,  alternosque  orbibus  orbes 
impediunt,  puguceque  cinit  simulacra  sub  armis . 
^;  7»/;/c  tergafuga-  nudant,  nunc  spicxda  vcrtunt 
injensi,  facta  pariter  nunc  pace  feruntur  .- 
fjt  quondam  Creta  fertur  Inbyrinthis  in  alta 
Parietibus  textum  c<vsis  iter,  ancipitemque 
Ml  lie  viis  habuisse  dolum,  qua  signa  sequendi 
r  alleret  indeprensus  et  irremeabilis  eiTor. 
Hand  aliter  Teucrum  nati  vestigia  cursu 
Impediunt,  tex  unique  fugas  et  pralia  I  ado  : 
J^elphinum  simile&,  qui  per  maria  huinida  nando 
tarpathium  Libycumque  secant,  luduntquc  per  undas 
ttunc  morem,  hos  cursus,  atque  hcec  certamina  piimv , 
Ascanius,  longam  mwis  cum  singeret  Albam, 
Retulit,  et  pHscos  docuit  celebrare  Latinos  .- 
Quo  pjier  ipse  viodo,  secum  quo  Troia  pubes, 
Albani  docuere  suos  :  hinc  maxima  porro 
^^cepit  Roma,  et  patrium  servavit  honorem . 
*roJaque  nunc  pueri,  Trojarmm  dicitur  agmen 

Rut  prince  ^neas,  ere  the  games  were  done, 

INow  cai'^d  the  wise  instructor  of  his  son, 

fhe  good  Epytides,  whose  faithful  hand 

In  noble  arts  the  blooming  hero  trained  • 

To  whom  the  royal  chief  his  will  declared; 

i^o  bid  Ascanius,  if  he  stands  prepared 

lo  march  his  youthful  troops,  begin  the  course, 

And  let  his  grandsire's  shade  commend  his  growing  force 


XI.V8  THE   CIRCENSIAN   SHOWS 

Thus  he ;  and  ordered  straight  the  swarming  tide 

'I'o  clear  the  Circus  ;  when  from  every  side 

Crowds  bear  back  crowds,  and  leave  an  open  spac*. 

Where  the  new  pomp  in  all  its  pride  niig-ht  pass: 

The  boys  move  on,  all  glittering  lovely  bright, 

On  well  reined  steeds  in  their  glad  parents'  sight. 

Wond'rlng,  the  Trojan  and  Sicilian  youth 

Crown  with  applause  their  virtue's  early  growth. 

Their  flowing  liair  close  flow'ry  chaplets  grace, 

And  two  fair  spears  their  eager  fingers  press. 

Part  bear  gay  quivers  on  their  shoulders  hung. 

And  twists  of  bending  gold  lie  wreathed  along 

Their  purjde  vest;   which  at  the  neck  begun. 

And  down  their  breast  in  shining  circles  run. 

Three  lovely  troops  three  beauteous  captains  led. 

And  twice  six  bo}S  each  hopeful  chief  obeyed. 

The  first  gay  troop  young  Priam  marslials  on. 

Thy  seed,  Polites,  not  to  fame  unknown. 

That  with  Italian  blood  shall  join  his  own : 

Whose  kinder  genius,  rip'ning  with  his  years. 

His  wretched  grandsire's  name  to  better  forttme  bears. 

A  rhracian  steed  with  spots  of  spreading  white 

He  rode,  that  pawed  and  craved  the  promised  fight; 

A  lovely  white  his  hither  fetlock  stains; 

And  white  his  high  erected  forehead  shines. 

And  next  with  stately  pace  young  Atys  moved, 

Young  Atys,  by  the  young  Ascanius  loved. 

From  this  great  line  the  noble  Attian  stem, 

In  Latium  nursed,  derive  their  ancient  name. 

The  third  with  his  command  Ascanius  graced  , 

Whose  godlike  looks  his  heavenly  race  confessed; 

So  beautiful,  so  brave,  he  shone  above  the  rest. 

His  sprightly  steed  from  Su'on's  pasture  came, 

The  noble  gift  of  the  fair  Tyrian  dame, 

And  fruitless  pledge  of  her  unhappy  flame. 

The  rest  Sicilian  coursers  all  bestrode, 

Which  old  Alccstes  on  his  guests  bestowed. 

Them  hot  with  beating  hearts,  the  Trojan  crew 

Kecelve  with  shouts,  and  with  fresh  pleasure  view; 

Discovering  in  the  lines  of  every  face 

Some  venerable  founder  of  their  race. 

And  now  the  youthful  troops  their  round  had  made. 

Panting  with  joy,  and  all  the  crowd  surveyed ; 

When  sage  Epytides,  to  give  the  sign, 

Cracked  his  long  whip,  and  made  the  course  begin. 

At  once  they  start,  and  spur  with  artful  speed, 

'Till  in  the  troops  the  Utile  chiefs  divide 

The  close  battalion ;  then  at  once  they  turn. 

Commanded  back,  while  from  their  fingers  borne, 

Their  hostile  darts  aloft  upon  the  wind 

Fly  shivering:  Then  in  circling  numbers  joined. 

The  managed  coursers  with  due  mcisurcs  bound. 

And  run  the  rapid  ring,  and  trace  the  mazy  round. 

Files  facing  files,  their  bold  companions  dare. 

And  wheel,  and  charge,  and  urge  the  sportive  war. 

Now  flight  they  feign,  and  naked  backs  expose  ;  p 

Now  with  turned  spears  drive  headlong  on  the  foes,  > 

And  now,  confederate  grown,  in  peaceful  ranks  tl^ey  close,  j 

As  Crete's  famed  labyrinth  to  thousand  ways. 

And  thousand  darkened  walls  the  guest  con^ciys ; 

Endless,  inextricable  rounds  amuse, 

And  no  kind  track  the  doubtful  passag**;  shewB; 


OF  THE  ROMANS.  ♦259 

So  the  glad  Trojan  youth  their  winding  course 

Sporting  pursue,  and  charge  the  rival  force. 

As  sprightly  dolphins  in  some  calmer  road 

Pluy  round  the  silent  waves,  and  shoot  along  the  flood. 

Ascanius,  when  (the  rougher  storms  o'erblown) 

A\ifh  happier  fates  he  raised  fair  Alba's  town; 

This  youthful  sport,  this  solemn  race  renewed. 

And  with  new  rites  made  the  plain  Latins  proud 

From  Alban  sires,  th'  hereditary  game 

To  matchless  Rome  by  long  succession  came ; 

And  the  fair  youth  in  this  diversion  trainetl, 

Troy  they  still  call,  and  the  brave  Trojan  band. 

J.azius  in  his  commentaries  de  Refiubl.  /^oma;2a,  fancies  the  justs 
.nd  tournaments  so  much  in  fashion  about  two  or  three  hundred 
years  ago,  to  have  owed  their  original  to  this  Ludu^  Troj<e,  and 
ihat  Tornainenta  is  but  a  corruption  of  Trojamenta  ;  and  the  learned 
and  noble  Du  Fresne  acquaints  us  that  many  are  of  the  same  opinion 
However,  though  the  word  may  perhaps  be  derived  with  more  pro^ 
babihly  from  the  French  tourner,  to  turn  round  with  agility  yet 
the  exercises  have  so  much  resemblance,  as  to  prove  the  one  an 
•mitation  of  the  other. 

The  Pijrrhicc,  or  Saltatio  Pyrrhica,  is  commonly  believed  to  be 
the  same  with  the  sport  already  described.     But,  besides,  that  none 
of  the  ancients  have  left  any  tolerable  grounds  for  such  a  conjecture 
it  m\\  appear  a  diflferent  game,  if  wc  look  a  little  into  its  original' 
und  on  the  manner  of  the  performance.     The  original  is,  by  some' 
:-eferred  to  Minerva,  who  led  up  a  dance  in  her  armour,  after  the 
onquest  of  the  Titans ;  by  others,  to  the  Curetca  or  Corybantes 
iupitcr's  guard  in  his  cradle;  who  leaped  up  and  down,  clashinc^ 
dieir  weapons,  to  keep  old  Saturn  from  hearing  the  cries  of  his  in- 
taiu  son.     Pliny  attributes  the  invention  to  Pyrrhus,  son  to  Achilles 
.vho  instituted  such  a  company  of  dancers  at  the  funeral  of  his  father  \ 
However,  that  it  was  very  ancient  is  plain  from  Homer ;  who,  as  he 
;iints  at  It  in  several  descriptions,  so  particularly  he  makes  the  ex- 
:^ct  form  and  manner  of  it  to  be  engraved  on  the  shield  of  Achilles 
^■iven  him  by  Vulcan.     The  manner  of  the  performance  seems  to' 
^avc  consisted  chiefly  in  the  nimble  turning  of  the  body,  and  shifting 
•^very  part,  as  if  it  were  done  to  avoid  the  stroke  of  an  enemy;  and 
•hercforc  this  was  one  of  the  exercises  in  which  they  trained  the 
.^oung  soldiers.     Apuleius  describes  a  Pyrrhic  dance,  performed  by 
young  men  and  maids  together;'  which  alone  would  be  enough  to 
distinguish  it  from  the  Ludu,  Troj^.     The  best  account  we  meet 
•wth  ot  the  Pyrrhic  dance  is  in  Claudian's  poem  on  the  sixth  con- 
'Ulship  of  Honorius : 


'■  Vat.  Hist.  lib.  57 


Mile<iiar.  lib.  10. 


1 


^60  OV  THE  SHOWS  OF 

Jivmiitos  hic  SiCpe  choroa,  crrtaqnc  vagandi 
Textas  lege  fui^iiSf  incovfusor,que  recnrsi/s, 
Kl  pulclivaH  evvontm  urtes,  jucundaque  JMartU 
t'ernitnus  :  insonuit  cum  vn^brre  signa  rnmrister, 
^Miitatostjiie  t'dant  pariter  tot  pcctora  mot  us, 
/n  latuii  allisis'  clupeis,  aut  ruisi/:i  in  nitum 
Vibratia :  grave  purma  sonat  muci'onis  ocuti 
ferbere^  et  umbonum  puhu  modulante  retudtan--* 
Ferreus  aiterno  concentus  claudituv  eji^c. 

Here  too  the  warlike  dancers  bless  our  sighl,  "^ 
'I'heir  ai*tful  wand'ring",  and  their  laws  of  flight,  \. 
And  unconfus'd  return,  and  inoftcnsive  fight.  j 

Soon  as  tlie  master's  crack  proclaims  the  prize. 
Their  moving  breasts  in  tuneful  changes  rise  ; 
The  shields  salute  their  sides,  or  straight  are  shown 
In  air  high  waving;  deep  the  targets  groan, 
Struck  with  alternate  swords,  which  thence  rebound. 
And  end  the  concert  and  the  sacred  sound. 

The  most  ingenious  Mr.  Cartvvright,  author  of  the  Uoyal  Slave, 
having  occasion  to  present  a  warlike  dance  in  that  piece,  took  tin 
measures  of  it  from  this  passage  of  Claudian,  as  the  most  exact  pat- 
tern antiquity  had  left.  And  in  the  printed  play,  he  has  given  no 
other  description  of  that  dance,  than  by  setting  down  the  verse": 
whence  it  is  copied. 

Julius  Scaligcr  tells  us  of  himself,  that,  while  a  youth,  he  ha5 
often  danced  the  Pyrrhic  before  the  emperor  Maximilian,  to  th( 
amazement  of  all  Germany;  and  that  the  emperor  was  once  so 
surprised  at  his  warlike  activity,  as  to  cry  out,  "  this  boy  was  cither 
born  in  a  coat  of  mail,  instead  of  a  skin,  or  else  has  been  rocked  ir. 
one  instead  of  a  cradle."* 


WILD  BEASTS. 


261 


CHAPTER  III. 

nr   IHF   KHOUS  OF  WILD  REASTS,  AND  OF  THE  NAUMACHI^ 

I'HE  shows  of  beasts  were  in  general  designed  for  the  honour  oi 
Diana,  the  patroness  of  hunting.  For  this  purpose  no  cost  was 
spared  to  fetch  the  most  different  creatures  from  the  farthest  part's 
of  the  world  :  Hence  C'laudian, 


Radbus  pars  ibat  oniistis 


Per  freta  velfuvins  ,-  exsanguis  dextera  torpet 
Jiemigist  et  profrriam  inetuebat  navita  mercem. 

«  Poet.  lib.  1.  cap.  18. 


Part  in  laden  vessels  came, 

Home  on  the  rougher  waves,  or  gentler  stream  . 
The  fainting  slave  let  fall  his  U-embling  oar  ; 
And  the  pale  master  fear'd  the  freight  he  bore 
k1  presently  after, 

Quodcungue  tremetidum  est 

Ih'Jitibus^  aut  insignejubis,  aut  nobile  cornu, 
.'hit  rigidum  setis  capitnr,  detrus  ojune  timorque 
Si'fvarwn,  7ion  caute  latent,  non  mole  resistunt. 
All  that  with  potent  teeth  command  the  plain. 
All  that  run  horrid  with  erected  mane, 
Or  proud  of  stately  horns,  or  bristling  hair, 
At  once  the  forest's  ornament  and  fear  ; 
'J'orn  from  their  deserts  by  the  Roman  power, 
Nor  strength  can  save,  nor  craggy  dens  secure. 
Some  creatures  were  presented  merely  as  strange  sights  and  rall- 
ies, as  the  crocodiles,  and  several  outlandish  birds  and  beasts;  others 
or  the  combat,  as  lions,  tigers,  leopards,  &c.  other  creatures',  either 
purely  for  delight,  or  else  for  the  use  of  the  people,  at  such  times  as 
ihcy  were  allowed  liberty  of  catching  ^vhat  they  could  for  them- 
hIvcs,  as  hares,  deer,  and  the  like.   We  may  reckon  up  three  sorts 
ot  diversions  with  the  beasts,  which  all  went  under  the  common  name 
of  Venatio;  the  first,  when  the  people  were  permitted  to  run  after 
-he  beasts,  and  catch  what  they  could  for  their  own  use  ;  the  second, 
uhcn  the  beasts  fought  with  one  another;  and  the  last,  when  they 
■  ere  brought  out  to  engage  with  men. 

Whrn  the  people  were  allowed  to  lay  hold  on  what  they  could  get, 
and  carry  it  off  for  their  own  use,  they  called  it  Vcnatio  direfitionis] 
Ihis  seems  to  have  been  an  institution  of  the  emperors.     It  was 
nany  times  presented  with  extraordinary  charge,  and  great  variety 
f  contrivances;  the  middle  part  of  the  Circus  being  set  all  over  with 
:tcs  removed  thither  by  main  force,  and  fastened  to  huge  planks, 
^liich  were  laid  on  the  ground;  these, being  covered  with  earth  and 
^:{,  represented  a  natural  forest,  into  which  the  beasts  being  let 
':om  the  Cave(E,  or  dens  under  ground,  the  people,  at  a  sign  given 
^y  the  emperor,  fell  to  hunting  them,  and  carried  away  wliat  they 
killed,  to  regale  upon  at  home.  The  beasts  usually  given  were  boars, 
^^cer,  oxen,  and  sheep.   Sometimes  all  kinds  of  birds  were  presented 
^f^tcr  the  same  manner.    The  usual  way  of  letting  the  people  know 
'^'lat  they  should  seize,  was  by  scattering  among  them  little  tablets 
'^r  tickets  {tcsaeras),  which  entitled  those  who  caught  them  to  the 
ontents  of  their  inscription.     Sometimes  every  ticket  was  marked 
^•ith  such  a  sum  of  money,  payable  to  the  first  taker.     These  lar- 
gesses were  in  general  termed  Missilia,  from  their  being  thrown  and 
•i^^persed  among  the  multitude.^ 
^  lie  fights  between  beasts  were  exhibited  with  great  variety: 

'  Bullcnger  de  V^en.  Circi,  cap.  25 
35 


262 


OF  TffE   SHOWS   OF 


WILD  BEASTS. 


263 


sometimes  we  find  a  tiger  matched  with  a  lion,  sometimes  a  lion 
with  a  hull,  a  bull  with  an  elephant,  a  rhinoceros  with  a  bear,  8cc 
sometimes  wc  meet  with  a  deer  hontcd  on  the  area  by  a  pack  oi 
doi^s.  Hut  the  most  wonderful  sight  was,  when,  by  bringing  the 
water  into  the  amphithratrr,  huge  sea  monsters  \Vere  introduced! 
combat  with  wild  beasts  : 

^'ec  nobis  taiitum  niflvefftria  cernere  moiistra 
Coutig-it^  ipquoreos  ego  cum  certuntibiie  ursi.; 
Spctiavi  vituloa.  Calpuurn.  Eclo^.  7 

Nor  svlvan  monsters  ue  alone  have  viewed, 
Kii*  huge  sea  c:ilvt;s,  dyed  red  with  hostile  blood 
()t*  hours,  lie  flound'ring  in  the  wond'ro\is  flood. 

The  men  that  engaged  with  wild  beasts  had  the  common  nanico 
BcsLiarii.  Some  of  these  were  condemned  persons,  and  have  bteii 
taken  notice  of  in  other  places;"  others  hired  themselves  at  a  sc 
pav,  like  the  gladiators;  and,  like  them  too,  had  their  schools  whci* 
th'.y  were  instructed  and  initiated  in  such  combats.  We  find  sevcra: 
of  I  .c  nobility  and  gentry  many  times  voluntarily  undertaking  a  par' 
in  these  encounurs.  And  Juvenal  acquaints  us,  that  the  very  vo 
men  were  ambitious  of  shewing  their  courage  on  the  like  occasion? 
though  with  the  forfeiture  of  their  modesty  : 


Ciirn- 


■JSIierda  Tufcvm 


Figat  aprunty  ct  ixuda  teneat  venabula  mamma. 

Or  when  with  naked  breast  the  mannish  wliore 
Sliakes  the  broad  spear  against  the  Tuscan  boar. 

And  Martial  com[)liments  the  emperor  Domitian  very  handsome!- 
on  the  same  account.     Spcctac.  vi. 

Jiclliger  invictis  quod  JMars  tibi  s^evit  in  armist 

JsTon  aatis  est^  Caaar^  scexnt  et  ipsa  Venus. 
Prostratitm  vasta  JVemees  in  valle  lemtem 

JVobiie  ft  Herculeum  fama  canebat  opus. 
Priscii  fides  taccat :  J\\un  post  'ua  munera,  CttsaVf 

Htcc  Jam  foeminea  vidimus  actumanu. 

Not  Mars  alone  his  bloody  arms  shall  wield ; 
Venus,  when  Carsar  bids,  shall  take  the 
Nor  only  wear  the  breeches,  but  the 
The  savage  tyrant  of  the  woods  and  plain, 
l»y  Hercules  in  doubtful  combat  slain. 
Still  fills  our  ears  witliin  the  Nemean  vale  . 
And  musty  rolls  the  mighty  wonder  tell ; 
No  wonder  now  ;  for  Caesar's  reign  has  shown 
A  woman's  equal  power:  the  same  renown 
Gain'd  by  the  distaff  which  the  club  had  won. 

Those  who  coped  on  the  plain  ground  with  beasts,  commonly  mtt 
with  a  very  unequal  match;  and  therefore,  for  the  most  part,  their 
safety  consisted  in  the  nimble  turning  of  their  body,  and  leaping  up 
and  down  to  delude  the  force  of  their  adversary.  Therefore  Martia 


wield ;  ^ 
le  field,  > 
shield.         3 


may  very  well  make  a  hero  of  the  man  who  slew  twenty  beasts,  all 
Id  in  upon  him  at  once,  though  we  suppose  them  to  have  been  of 
he  inferior  kind  : 

Ilerculct  laudis  numeretur  gloria :  plus  est 
his  denos  paritev  per domuisse  /eras. 

Count  the  twelve  feats  that  Hercules  has  done  , 
Vet,  tweiity  make  a  greater,  join'd  in  one. 

But  because  this  way  of  engaging  commonly  proved  successful 
:o  the  beasts,  they  had  other  ways  of  dealing  with  them,  as  by  as- 
sailing them  with  darts,  spears,  and  other  missive  weapons,  from 
die  higher  parts  of  the  amphitheatre,  where  they  were  secure  from 
their  reach ;  so  as  by  some  means  or  other  they  commonly  con- 
trived to  dispatch  three  or  four  hundred  beasts  in  one  show. 

In  the  show  of  wild  beasts  exhibited  by  Julius  Caesar  in  his  third 
consulship,  twenty  elephants  were  opposed  to  five  hundred  foot- 
men ;  and  twenty  more  with  turrets  on  their  backs  :  sixty  men  were 
allowed  to  defend  each  turret,  engaged  with  five  hundred  foot,  and 
as  many  horse. » 

The  Naumachle  owe  their  original  to  the  time  of  the  first  Punic 
war,  when  the  Romans  first  initiated  their  men  in  the  knowledge 
of  sea  affairs.  After  the  improvement  of  many  years,  they  were 
designed  as  well  for  the  gratifying  the  sight,  as  for  encrcasing  their 
naval  experience  and  discipline;  and  therefore  composed  one  of  the 
solemn  shows,  by  which  the  magistrates  or  emperors,  or  any  affect- 
ers  of  popularity,  so  often  made  their  court  to  the  people. 

The  usual  accounts  we  have  of  these  exercises,  seem  to  represent 
them  as  nothing  else  but  the  image  of  a  naval  fight.  But  it  is  proba- 
ble that  sometimes  they  did  not  engage  in  any  hostile  manner,  but 
only  rowed  fairly  for  the  victory.  This  conjecture  may  be  confirmed 
by  the  authority  of  Virgil,  who  is  acknowledged  by  all  the  critics  in 
his  descriptions  of  the  games  and  exercises  to  have  had  an  eye  al- 
ways to  his  own  country,  and  to  have  drawn  them  after  the  manner 
of  the  Roman  sports.  Now  the  sea  contention,  which  he  presents 
us  with,  is  barely  a  trial  of  swiftness  in  the  vessels,  and  of  skill  in 
managing  the  oars,  as  is  most  admirably  delivered  in  his  fifth  book, 
114: 

Prima  pares  ineunt  gravibus  certamina  remis 
Quatuor  ex  omni  delecta  classe  carincty  SiC. 

The  jYaumachia  of  Claudius,  which  he  presented  on  the  Fucine 
lake  before  he  drained  it,  deserves  to  be  particularly  mentioned,  not 
more  for  the  greatness  of  the  show,  than  for  the  behaviour  of  the 


-  Book  3.  chap.  20. 


'  Plin.  N*t.  Hiit.  lib.  8.  cap  7. 


:j64 


OF  THE  GLADIATORS. 


OF  THE  GLADIATORS. 


emperor;  who  when  the  combatants  passed  before  him  with  so  m 
lancholy  a  greeting  as  ytve  imfirrator,  morituri  te  nalutant,  returned 
in  answer,  Avetc  vos ;  which  when  they  would  gladly  have  inter 
prctcd  as  an  act  of  favour,  and  a  grant  of  their  lives,  he  soon  gave 
them  to  understand  that  it  proceeded  from  the  contrary  principle  o- 
barbarous  cruelty,  and  insensibility.^ 

The  most  celebrated  Xainnachia:  were  those  of  the  emperor  Do 

mitiaYi ;    in  which  were  engaged  such  a  vast  number  of  vessels  a 

would  have  almost  formed  two  complete  navies"  for  a  proper  fi^h; 

together  with  a  proportionable  channel  of  water,  equalling  the  d! 

mensions  of  a  natural  river.  Martial  has  a  very  genteel  turn  on  thi 

subject.     S|)cctac.  24: 

Si  ijuis  tides  loji^is  aerus  s//ectator  ab  ovis, 

Cui  lux  prima  xacri  niunevifi  istu  diesy 
.A>  te  deci/fiut  ratilmn  inivalis  Knj/o, 

Kt  par  itnda  frciiit  .•   hie  mudo  terra  fnit. 
A*un  crtdis  :-'  spfctts  diim  kuent  ivquorn  JMurtem  , 

Pai"iKi  vwra  e.s-t,  dicof,  hie  modo  pontm  crat. 
Stranger,  whoe'er  from  distant  parts  arrivM, 
Hut  this  one  sacred  day  in  Home  lias  liv'd  ; 
Mistake  not  the  wide  flood,  and  pompous  sliou 
Of  naval  combats ;  here  was  land  hut  now. 
Is  this  beyond  your  credit  ^  Only  stay  "} 

"Pill  Tionj  the  fl^dit  the  vessels  bear  away;        ^ 
You'll  cry  with  wonder,  here  but  now  was  sea  Ij 

it  is  related  of  the  emperor  Ileliugabaius,  that,  inareprcsentatio 
uf  a  naval  fight,  he  filled  the  channel  where  the  vessels  were  to  ride, 
with  wine  instead  of  water  ;>  a  story  scarce   credible,  though  wf 
have  the  highest  conceptions  of  this  prodigious  luxury  and  extra- 


265 


'.'agance. 


CIIAPTKR   I\ 


OF  T!IE  GLAUIATOKS. 


rj  I L first  rise  ol  the  Gladiators  is  referred  to  the  ancient  custom  o> 
killing  persons  at  the  funerals  of  great  men.  For  the  old  heathens 
fancying  the  ghosts  of  the  deceased  to  be  satisfied  and  rendered 
propitious  by  human  blood,  at  first  they  used  to  buy  captives,  or  un- 
toward slaves,  and  ofTercd  them   at  the  obsequies ;  afterwards  they 

Mioton.  Claud,  cap.  43.     Tacit.  An.  xiii. 

Sucton  in  Domit.  cap.  4.  v  Lampridius  in  Ilelio^ab. 


contrived  to  veil  over  their  impious  barbarity  with  the  specious  show 
of  pleasure  and  voluntary  combat ;  and  therefore,  training  up  such 
persons  as  they  had  procured  in  some  tolerable  knowledge  of  wea- 
pons, upon  the  day  appointed  for  the  sacrifices  to  the  departed 
e^hosts,  they  obliged  them  to  maintain  a  mortal  encounter  at  the 
tombs  of  their  friends.  The  first  show  of  Gladiators  (Afunus  ^Gla- 
diatorium)  exhibited  at  Rome,  was  that  of  IM.  and  D.  Brutus,  upon 
;hc  death  of  their  father,  A.  U.  C.  490,  in  the  constdship  of  Ap. 
Claudius  and  M.  Fulvius.* 

Within  a  little  time,  when  they  found  the  people  exceedingly 
pleased  with  such  bloody  entertainments,  they  resolved  to  give  them 
the  like  diversion  as  soon  as  possible,  and  therefore  it  soon  grew  into 
a  custom,  that  not  only  the  heir  of  any  great  or  rich  citizen  newly 
deceased,  but  that  all  the  principal  magistrates,  should  take  occa- 
sions to  present  the  people  with  these  shows,  in  order  to  procure 
iheir  esteem  and  affection.     Nay,  the  very  priests  were  sometimes 
the  exhibitors  of  such  impious  pomps;  for  we  meet  with  the  Ludi 
P'jutlficulcs  in  Suetonius,^  and  with  the  Ludi  Sacerdotales'm  Pliny.« 
As  for  the  emperors,  it  was  so  much  their  interest  to  ingratiate 
dicniselves  with  the  commonalty,  that  they  obliged  them  with  these 
shows  almost  upon  all  occasions  ;  as  on  their  birth-day,  at  the  time 
ot'a  triumph,  or  after  any  signal  victory,  at  the  consecration  of  any 
public  edifices,  at  the  games  which  .several  of  them  instituted  to  re- 
turn in  such  a  term  of  years;  with  many  others,  which  occur  in 
every  historian. 

Uid  as  the  occasions  of  these  solemnities  were  so  prodigiously 
iiu  reased,  in  the  same  manner  was  the  length  of  them,  and  the 
lumber  of  the  combatants.  At  the  first  show  exhibited  by  the 
Bruii,  it  is  probable  there  were  only  three  pair  of  Gladiators,  as  mav 
•c  gathered  from  that  of  Ausonius  ; 

Trea  pvimas  Thracum  prismas,  tribes  ordinc  br/b'.fj 
Juniadx  putrio  inferias  miscre  sepidchro. 

Vet  Julius  C-.£sar  in  his  acdileship  presented  three  hundred  and 

wenty  pair.^     The  excellent  Titus  exhibited  a  show  of  Gladiators, 

^vild  beasts,  and  representations  of  sea-fights,  an  hundred  days  to- 

•^tther;'  and  Trajan,  as  averse  from  cruelty  as  the  former,  conti- 

'  vied  the  solemnity  of  this  nature  a  hundred  and  twenty-three  days, 

'uring  which  he  brought  out  a  thousand  pair  of  Gladiators.^    Two 

I'ousand  men  of  the  same  profession  were  listed  by  the  emperor 

)lho  to  serve  against  Vitellius.     Nay,  long  before  this,  thev  were 


"^al.  Max.  Jib.  2.  cap.  4 
"  August,  cap.  44. 
^-pist.  Jib.  r. 


<*  Plutarch,  in  Csesar 
«  Dio.  hb.  68. 
■  Tacitus. 


266 


Of   THE  GLADIATORS. 


SO  very  numerous,  that,  in  the  time  of  the  Catilinarian  conspiracy, 
an  order  passed  to  send  all  the  {gladiators  up  and  down  into  the  gar- 
risons, for  fear  they  should  raise  any  disturbance  in  the  city,<^  b\ 
joininpj  with  the  disaffected  party.  And  Plutarch  informs  us,  that 
the  famous  Spartacus,  who  at  last  gathered  such  a  numerous  force 
as  to  put  Rome  under  some  unusual  apprehensions,  was  no  more 
than  a  Gladiator,  who,  breaking  out  from  a  show  at  Verona,  with 
the  rest  of  his  gang,  dared  proclaim  war  against  the  Roman  state.' 

In  the  mean  time,  the  wise  and  the  better  Romans  were  very  sen 
sible  of  the  dangerous  consequences  which  a  corruption  of  this  na- 
ture might  produce;  and  therefore  Cicero  preferred  a  law,  that  no 
person  should  exhibit  a  show  of  Gladiators  within  two  years  before 
he  appeared  candidate  for  an  office.*  Julius  Caesar  ordered,  tha! 
only  such  a  number  of  men  of  this  profession  should  be  in  Rome  at 
a  time.j  Augustus  decreed  that  only  two  shows  of  Gladiators  shouk! 
be  presented  in  a  year,  and  never  above  sixty  pair  of  combatants  iii 
a  show.**  Tiberius  provided  by  an  order  of  senate,  that  no  person 
should  have  the  privilege  of  gratifying  the  people  with  such  a  so 
Icmnity,  unless  he  was  worth  four  hundred  thousand  sesterces.' 

Ncrva  in  a  great  measure  regulated  this  affair,  after  the  many 
abuses  of  the  former  emperors ;  but  the  honour  of  entirely  removing 
this  barbarity  out  of  the  Roman  world  was  reserved  for  Constantinc 
the  great,  which  he  performed  about  the  year  of  the  city  1067,  nigh 
bix  hundred  years  after  their  first  institution.  Yet  under  Constan- 
tius,  Theodosius,  and  Valentinian,  the  same  cruel  humour  began  to 
revive,  until  a  final  stop  was  put  to  it  by  the  emperor  Hoiioriub, 
the  occasion  of  which  is  given  at  large  by  the  authors  of  ecclesias- 
tical history. 

This  much  may  be  proper  to  observe  in  general,  concerning  the 
origin,  increase,  and  restraint  of  this  custom.  For  our  farther  infor- 
mation, it  will  be  necessary  to  take  particular  notice  of  the  condition 
of  the  Gladiators,  of  their  several  orders  or  kinds,  and  of  their  man- 
ner of  duelling. 

As  for  their  condition,  they  were  commonly  slaves,  or  captives; 
for  it  was  an  ordinary  custom  to  sell  a  disobedient  servant  to  the 
La7iist(S^  or  the  instructors  of  the  Gladiators,  who,  after  they  had 
taught  them  some  part  of  their  skill,  let  them  out  for  money  at  z 
show.  Yet  the  freemen  soon  put  in  for  a  share  of  this  privilege  to 
be  killed  in  jest;  and  accordingly  many  times  offered  themselves  to 
hire  for  the  amphitheatre,  whence  they  had  the  name  of  Juctorati 


Sallust.  Catalin. 
%  Plutarch,  in  Crass. 
•  Cicero,  in  YMin. 


j  Suet.  Cxsar.  cap.  10. 

k  Dio.  I  Tacit.  An.  4, 


OF  THE  GLADIATORS. 


267 


Nay,  the  knights  and  noblemen,  and  even  the  senators  themselves, 

at  last,  were  not  ashamed  to  take  up  the  same  prof<;ssion,  some  to 

keep  themselves  from   starving,  after  they  had  squandered   away 

their  estates,  and  others  to  curry  favour  with  the  emperors;   so  that 

Augustus  was  forced  to  command  by  a  public  edict,  that  none  of  the 

senatorian  order  should   turn  Gladiators  ;•»  and  soon  after,  he  laid 

the  same  restraint  on  the  knights."    Yet  these  prohibitions  were  so 

little  regarded  by  the  following  princes,  that  Xero  presented  at  one 

show  (if  the  numbers  in  Suetonius  are  not  corrupted)  400  senators, 

and  600  of  the  equestrian  rank." 

But  all  this  will  look  like  no  wonder,  when,  upon  a  farther  search, 

we  meet  with  the  very  women  engaging  in  these  public  encounters, 

particularly  under  Nero  and  Domitian.     Juvenal  has  exposed  them 

very  handsomely  for  this  mannish  humour  in  his  sixth  Satire,  254* 

Quale  (lecus  rerum,  si  conjii^s  audio  fiat, 
Baltms  et  mamde,  et  cristce^  crunsque  sijiistvi 
Dimidium  teamen  ?  vet  si  diversa  inoveblt 
Fralia^  tu  felix,  ocreas  vendeiite  puella. 
Hit  ainit  giue  tniui  sitdant  in  cyclade :  quarum 
Delicias  et  paniiicitliis  boinbycinus  urit. 
^iclspise  quo  fremitu  monstratos  perfei-at  ictus^ 
Et  quanto  gale,x  curvetiir  pondere ,-  quanta 
Poplitibus  sedeaty  qvam  densa  fascia  libra  / 

Oh  !  what  a  decent  sight  'tis  to  behold 

All  thy  wife's  magazine  by  auction  sold? 

The  belt,  the  crested  plume,  the  several  suits 

Of  armour,  and  the  Spanish-leather  boots! 

Yet  these  are  they  that  cannot  bear  the  heat 

Of  figured  silks,  and  under  sarsenet  sweat. 

Behold  the  strutting  Amazonian  whore. 

She  stands  in  guard,  with  her  right  foot  before; 

Her  couts  tucked  up,  and  all  her  motions  just; 

She  stamps,  and  then  cries  hah  !  at  every  thrust.         dktden. 

Yet  the  women  were  not  the  most  inconsiderable  performeis,for 

a  more  ridiculous  set  of  combatants  are  still  behind ;  and  these  were 

the  dwarfs,  who,  encountering  one  another,  or  the  women,  at  these 

public  diversions,  gave  a  very  pleasant  entertainment.     Statins  has 

'eft  us  this  elegant  description  of  them  :  Sylv.  I.  vi.  57. 

J/ic  audax  subit  ordo  pumilonim^ 
Quos  natura  bvevi  statu  peractoftf 
J^odosum  semel  in  globum  ligavit. 
Edunt  vulnerOy  conseruntque  dextras, 
Et  mortem  sibiy  qua  mamtf  minentur^ 
Bidet  Mars  pater,  et  cnicnta  Virtus  ,- 
Casuraeqiie  vagis  grues  rapinis, 
Jyiirant^ir  pumilos  ferociores. 

To  mortal  combat  next  succeed 
Bold  fencers  of  the  pigmy  breed, 

^  Dio.  lib.  48.  « Idem,  Ncr.  cap.  12 

"  Sueton.  Aug.  cap.  45.    Dio,  lib.  54. 


:68 


OI    TUL  GLADIATORS. 


Whom  Nature,  when  she  half  had  wrought, 
Not  worth  lior  farther  labour  tljouijht, 
lUit  closcfl  the  rest  in  one  liard  knot. 
With  wliat  a  ^vacc  they  drive  their  blow. 
And  ward  their  jolt-head  from  tiicir  foe  ' 
Old  Mars  and  rig-id  Virtue  smile 
At  their  redoubtetl  champions'  toil. 
And  cranes,  to  please  the  njol),  let  fly, 
Adnnred  to  see  their  enemv 
vSo  often  by  themselves  o'ercome. 
Inspired  with  nobler  hearts  at  Home. 

The  several  kinds  of  (iladiu.*,;  ,  worth  obsf.rving  were  the  Re 
uariij  ihc  Sccutorf's,\.\\(^  Myrmillonc.s^\.\\c  Tliracians^  the  Hamnitea 
the  I'injiirafii^  the  Ks.stdarii^  and  the  yJndadata.'.     But,  bcfurc  wc 
enquire  particularly  into  the  distinct  orders,  we  may  take  notice  ot 
several  names  attributed  in  common  to  some  of  every  kind  upon 
various  occasions.     Thus  we  meet  with  the  CUadiutore-i  2'\frridia?Nj 
who  engaged  in  the  afternoon,  the  chief  part  of  the  show  being 
iinished  in   the  morning.      Gladiatores  luscalci:^  those  who  were 
maintained  out  of  the  cmpcror's7?.vri^.?,  or  private  treasury,  such  as 
'\rrian  calls   Kct/s-;*^*?  f4.o\oitocx^q,  Cxsar's  Gladiators :    Gladiatores 
J^ostulatitii^  commonly  men  of  art  and  experience,  whom  the  people 
particularly  desired   the  emperor  to  produce;    Gladiatorcfi  Catcr- 
I'arii,  such  as  did  not  fight  by  pairs,  but  in  small  companies.     Sue- 
tonius uses   Catcrvarii  Piiifili's  in   the  same  sense.?      Gladiatores 
Ordinarily  such  as  were  presented  according  to  the  common  man- 
ner, and  at  the  usual  time,  and  fought   the  ordinary  way ;  on  which 
account  they  were  distinguished  from  the  Catervarii  and  the  Poi 
tnlatitii. 

As  for  the  several  kinds  already  reckoned  up,  ihey  owed  their  dis- 
tinction to  their  country,  their  arms,  their  way  of  fighting,  and  such 
circumstances,  and  may  be  thus,  in  short,  described: 

The  Retiarius  w  as  dressed  in  a  short  coat,  having  a  Fuftciua  or  tri- 
dent in  his  left-hand,  and  a  net  in  his  right,  with  which  he  endea- 
voured to  entangle  his  adversary,  and   then  with  his  trident  might 
easily  dispatch  him  ;  on  his  head  he  wore  only  a  hat  tied  under  his 
chin  with  a  broad  riband.     The  iiecutor  was  armed  with  a  buckler 
and  a  helmet,  wherein  was  the  picture  of  a  fish,  in  allusion  to  the  net. 
II is  weapon  was  a  scymeter,  ovfalx  su/iina.   He  was  called  Scci^tor, 
because  ifthei^f//aW/.'s,against  whom  he  was  always  matched,  should 
happen  to  fail  in  casting  his  net,  his  only  safety  lay  in  flight ;  so  that  in 
this  case  he  plied  his  heels  as  fast  as  he  could  about  the  place  of 
combat,  till  he  had  got  his  net  in  order  for  a  second  throw;  in  the 
mean  time  this  -SVcw/oror  follower  pursued  him,  and  endeavoured  to 
prevent  his  design.     Juvenal  is  very  happy  in  the  account  he  gives 


•  Aug-,  cap.  45, 


OF  THE  GLADIATORS. 


269 


US  of  a  young  nobleman  that  scr.ndalonsly  turned  Retiarius  in  the 
■cign  of  Xero;  nor  is  there  any  relation  of  this  sort  of  combat  so 
exact  in  any  other  author. 


-Et  illic 
nee  mynnilloins  in  avmis^ 


Dedecas  urbis  hajes 

AVc  clypeo  (hucchian  pugnantem  nut  fake  supinxi, 

(  Damnat  e>ti,n  t.den  ha'utuf,  sed  damnat  et  odit .) 

J\''tc  galea  faciein  uhaco.uht,  mo7\t  ecce  tridentem, 

PoaUivam  Uhnita  pendentia  r.-tia  dertru 

^Veyuici^uuw  cfndit^  nudum  nd  apectacuhi  vultmn 

Evigit,  Lt  tote  Jug-it  agnoscendi/s  arena. 

Cre.iamu!,-  tumce.  de  faucibus  auvea  ann  se 

Po)  iguij  et  longo  Jacietur  spira  galero  .• 

■Ei-r .,  'gnominiam  graviureni  pevtidit  omni 

Vufnere,  cum  Graccho  Jussus  pugnave  secvtor.     Sat.  viii.  199. 

Go  to  the  lists  where  feats  of  arms  are  shown,         ) 

There  you'll  find  Gracchus,  from  Patrician  grown  C 

A  fencer,  and  the  scandal  of  the  town.  ^ 

Nor  will  ]ie  the  Myrmillo's  weapons  bear. 

The  modest  helmet  he  disdains  to  wear. 

As  Retiai'iva  he  attacks  his  ioe ; 

First  waves  his  trident  ready  for  the  throw. 

Next  casts  his  net,  but  neither  levell'd  right,  '] 

He  stares  about,  exposed  to  public  sight; 

Then  places  all  bis  safety  in  his  flight. 

Uoom  for  the  noble  Gladiator !  see 

Iliscoat  and  hat-band  shew  his  quality. 

Thus  when  at  last  the  brave  Myrmillo  knew 

*Tvvas  Gracchus  was  the  wretch  he  did  pursue. 

To  conquer  such  a  coward  grieved  him  more. 

Than  if  he  many  glorious  wounds  had  bore.  .•stepney. 

Here  the  poet  seems  to  make  the  Myrmillo  the  same  as  the  Seen- 
'>r,and  thus  all  the  comments  explain  him.  Yet  Lipsius  will  have 
the  Myrmillones  to  be  a  distinct  order,  who  fought  completely  arm- 
ed; and  therefore  he  believes  them  to  be  the  Crw/2<>//ar/7  of  Taci- 
lus,q  so  called  from  some  old  Ciallic  word,  expressing  that  they  could 
jnly  creep  along,  by  reason  of  their  heavy  armeur. 

The  Thracians  made  a  great  part  of  the  choicest  Gladiators,  that 
nation  having  the  general  repute  of  fierceness  and  cruelty  beyond 
iherest  of  the  world.  The  particular  weapon  they  used  was  the  sica, 
'jr  falchion;  and  the  defence  consisted  in  a  fiarma^  or  little  round 
sliicld,  proper  to  their  country. 

The  original  of  the  Samnite  Gladiators  is  given  us  by  Livy  ;  The 
^'anipanians,  says  he,  bearing  a  great  hatred  to  the  Samnites,  they 
^nncd  a  part  of  their  Gladiators  after  the  fashion  of  that  country, 
'Hd  called  them  Samnites.'  What  these  arms  were,  he  tells  us 
in  another  place;  they  wore  a  shield  broad  at  the  top,  to  defend  the 
')reast  and  shoulders,  and  growing  more  nan^ow  towards  the  bottom, 
hat  it  might  be  moved  with   the  greater  convenience;  they  had  a 


^  Annal.  lib.  5. 


rLih.9. 


.)6 


'270 


in     llli:  GLADIATORS. 


suif  r»(  lH:lt '  oniiii^ovcr  Iheir  hrrast,  a  ^rcavc  on  'Jieir  left  foot,  anrj 
a  crested  helmet  on  their  heads;  whence  it  is  plain  (hat  desrriptiorj 
nfthr  Aniazf)nian  fencer  already  i;iveii  from  Juvenal  is  expressly 
meant  of  assumint;  the  airnonr  and  duty  of  a  Samnilc  (iladiator: 

Ditnixliuvi  trifmen. 
TIk!  Pnuur^  which  adorned  the  Sunniite's  helmet,  denomiiiutci 
anoilur  sort  f)f  (iladiatois  /'"• /•«///,  because,  l)cin^  matched  with 
li»e  Samnites,  ihcy  used  to  caicii  at  those  I'lima:^  and  hear  them  oiT 
in  triumph,  as  marks  of  their  victory.  Dr.  Holiday  takes  the  I'inn  • 
rufni:<  to  he  the  same  as  the  HrfiariUH.^ 

Lipsius  fancies  the  Prrjcitrdforrs^  mentioned  by  (>icero  in  his  ora- 
tion for  P.  Scxlius,  lf>  hav<'  been  a  distinct  species,  and  that  they 
were  };eni;rwdly  matched  with  the  Sami»itcs  ;  thouj^h  perhaps  the 
words  of  Cicero  may  be  thought  not  to  imply  so  much. 

The  I InfUouHichi^\\\\on\  we  meet  with  in  Seneca^  and  Suetonius,' 
niuy  prol)al)ly  be  the  same  cither  with  the  Samnites  or  Mijruul' 
lojH'S'^  called  by  the  (ireek  name  oTrAouu^oi,  because  they  fought  in 
armour. 

The  /''.v.<fc,7i7r//,  mentioned  by  the  same  authors,^  and  by  Tully,' 
were  such  as  on  some  occasions  enj^aj^ed  one  another  out  of  charioi-> 
(rsxrda)^  though  perhaps  at  other  times  they  fou^dit  on  fool  like  tlic 
rest.  The  r.sscduin  was  a  sort  of  wai^i^on,  from  which  the  Ciauls  and 
the  Britons  used  to  assail  the  Romans  in  their  engagements  uiih 
them. 

The  Ayulahatify  or  'Avceotserot^,  fought  on  horseback,  with  a  sort  of 
helmet  that  covered  all  the  face  and  eyes,  and  therefore,  Andahata- 
rum  more  /iHg-fiarr,  is  lo  combat  blindfold. 

As  to  the  manner  of  the  Ciladiators'  combats,  wc  cannot  apprehend 
it  fully,  unless  we  take  in  what  was  done  before,  and  what  after  the 
fight,  as  well  as  the  actual  engagement.  When  any  person  designed 
to  oblige  the  j)cople  with  a  show,  lie  set  up  bills  in  the  public  places, 
giving  an  account  of  the  time,  the  number  of  the  Gladiators,  and 
other  circumstances.  This  they  called  Mu}ius  /ironunciarr^ov firofi^j- 
nere  ;  and  the  libcUi  or  bills  were  somciimes  termed  cdicta;  many 
times,  besides  these  bills,  they  set  up  great  pictures,  on  which  were 
described  the  manner  of  the  fight,  and  the  effigies  of  some  of  the 
most  celebrated  Ciladiators,  whom  ihey  intended  to  bring  out.  This 
custom  is  elegantly  described  by  Horace,  Book  2.  Sat.  vii.  95 : 

V el  cum  Pausiaca  toipeSf  insane,  tabella. 

Qui  /)eccas  milium,  luque  e^o,  cum  Ftdx'i,  Rutubitque 

«  Illustration  of  Juvenal,  Sat.  3.  ''  Scncc.  Epist.  39.  Sueton.  Calig.  y^ 

'  Controvcrs.  lib.  3.  Claud.  21. 

"  In  Culig.  3.  w  In  Epistolis. 


OF  Tirn  GLADIATORS.  071 

.flttt  Plaridtmin,  (mitento  fio/tlilc,  miror 
J*raUn,  ruhmafnita  out  rni/jone,  rphitu 
lieTern  fnitnif-nt,  frnrint,  litrnff/ue  moventes 
Jlrmn  Tin  ? 

Or  when  on  some  rare  piece  you  wonflVing  stand, 
.\nd  praise  the  colours,  and  the  master's  hand, 
Arf  yon  hs3  vain  than  f,  when  in  the  street 
'I  iic  painted  canvas  holds  my  ravish*!  sight  ^ 
^Vherc  with  hent  knees  the  skilful  f-nccrs  strive 
To  speed  tlieir  pass,  as  if  they  moved  alive  ; 
And  with  new  sleights  so  well  expressed  engage, 
I  hat  I  amazed  stare  up,  and  think  them  on  the  stage. 

At  the  appointed  day  for  the  show,  in  the  first  place,  the  f  iladia- 
tors  were  brought  out  all  together,   and  obliged  to  take  a    .  ucuit 
round  the  arrna  in  a  very  solemn  and  pompous  manner.  After  this, 
they  proceeded /^ar/V/  comfi^jnerc,  to  match  them  by  i)airs,  in  which 
care  was  used  to  make  the  matches  equal.     Before  the  combatants 
fell  to  It  in  earnest,  they  tried   their  skill  against  one  another  with 
ir.orc  harmless  weapons,  as  the  Ridden,  spears  without  heads,  the 
Junted  swords,  the  foils,  and  such  like.  This  Cicero  admirably   >,. 
-ervcs  :  "  Si  in  illo  ipso  gladiatorio  vitae  certamine,  quo  ferro  decer- 
iiitur,  tamen  ante  congrcssum  uiulta  fiunt,  qux  non  ad  vulnus,  sed  ad 
.pecicm  valcrc  videantur  :  quanto  magis  hoc  in  oratione  cxpectan- 
lum  est '"  "  If  in  the  mortal  combats  of  the  Gladiators,  where  the 
Mctory  is  decided  by  ai'ms,  before  they  actually  engage,  there  are  se- 
veral flourishes  given,  more  for  a  show  of  art  than  a  design  of  hurt- 
ing; how  much  more  proper  would  this  look  in  the  contention  of  an 
orator  r"     This  flourishing  before  the  fight  was  called  in  common 
Prxluaio^  or,  in  respect  to  the  swords  only,  Ventilatio.    This  exer- 
isewas  continued,  till  the  trumpets  sounding  gave  them  notice  to 
enter  on  more  desperate  encounters,  and  then  they  were  said  verterc 

Ita  rem  natam  esie  intelli^o, 

J^'ecesaum  est  vorsis  arms  d^pv^arier.  Flatt. 

The  terms  of  striking  were  fietere  and  rcj.ccLrc ;  of  avoioing  a 
^low,  ejcire,     Virg.  .£n.  v.  4C8. 

Corpore  tela  modo,  atqixe  oculis  vijilantidns  exit. 

^^  hen  any  person  received  a  remarkable  wound,  either  his  adver- 
^viry  or  the  people  used  to  cry  out,  /labet,  or  hcc  hat--.  This  Vjrgil 
alludes  to.  .Encid  :c;i.  291 : 

■Teloque  orantem  midta,  trabali 


Den/ per  aitua  equo  graviter  ferity  atque  ita  fat ur, 
Hoc  habot :  hjec  mapiis  melior  data  -cictima  dixis. 

Him,  as  much  he  prayed. 

With  his  huge  spear  Messapua  deeply  struck 
From  his  high  courser's  back,  and  chasing  spoke. 
*  He  has  it;'  and  to  this  auspicious  blow^ 
A  nobler  victim  the  great  gods  ihall  o^e. 


I 


272 


OF  THE  GLADIATORS. 


OF  THE  GLADIATORS. 


273 


The  parly  who  was  worsted  submitted  his  arms,  and  acknowl  edgeJ 
himseli" conquered;  yet  this  would  not  save  his  life,  unless  the  peo- 
ple pleased,  and  therefore  he  made  his  application  to  them  for  piiy 
Tiie  two  signs  of  favour  and  dislike  tjivcn  by  the  people  were,  /in. 
7/nre  /loi/iccmj  and  ^>erierc  /lol/iccm,  phrases  which  the  critics  have 
quarrelled  much  about  to  little  purpose.     But  M.  Dacicr  seems  tu 
have  been  more  happy  in  his  explanation  than  his  predecessors 
The  former  he  takes  to  be  a  clenching  of  the  lingers  of  both  hand< 
between  one  another,  and  so  holding  the  two  thumbs  upright  close 
together.  This  was  done  to  express  their  admiration  of  the  art  and 
courage  shewed  by  both  combatants,  and  a  sign  to  the  conqueror  to 
spare  the  life  of  his  antagonist,  as  having  performed   his  part  re- 
markably well.     Hence  Horace,  to  signify  the  extraordinary  com- 
mendation that  a  man  co-.dd  give  to  one  of  his  own  temper  and  dis- 
position, says,  Ep.  xviii.  66  : 

Fautor  utror/ne  iuiim  laudabit  pnllicr  huhnn. 

And  Menander  has  ^•-Kn/Aoy?  Tns^sn,  /o /irfss  the^/int^rrs,  a  cuslom 
on  the  (irecian  stage,  designed  for  a  nmrk  of  approbation,  answer- 
able to  our  clapping. 

But  the  contrary  motion,  or  u'jij.iing  back  of  the  thumbs,  signi- 
fied the  dissatisfaction  of  the  spectators,  and  authorized  the  victoi 


to  kill  the  other  combatant  outright  for  a  coward: 


■Vevso  ftolice  viilg-i 
QuemliLet  orcidunt  popttlaviter.- 


Juv.  Sat.  3.  36. 


\>  here,  influenced  by  the  rabble's  bloody  will, 
With  tluimbs  bent  back,  they  popularly  kill. 

Besides  this  privilege  of  the  people,  the  emperors  seem  to  have 
had  the  liberty  of  saving  whom  they  thought  fit,  when  they  were 
present  at  any  solemnity,  and,  perhaps,  upon  the  bare  coming  inoi 
the  emperor  into  the  place  of  combat,  the  Gladiators,  who  in  th.r 
instant  had  the  worst  of  it,  were  delivered  from  farther  danger: 

desoris  advnitn  tuta  Gladiator  arena 

Exity  ct  niwilium  71011  leve  vidtns  hahet. 
Where  Cncsar  comes,  the  worsted  fencer  lives. 
And  liis  bare  presence  (like  the  gods)  reprieves. 

After  the  engagement,  there  were  several  marks  of  Ktvour  confer 
red  on  the  victors,  as  many  times  a  present  of  money,  perhaps  ga 
(hered  among  the  spectators,  which  Juvenal  alludes  to.  Sat.  7: 

Acclpe  victrM  popnlns  quod  pmtulat  aunnn. 

Take  the  gains 

A  conquering  fencer  from  the  crowd  obtains. 

But  the  most  common  rewards  were  i\\c  fiileus  and  the  rud;.^ ;  the 

former  was  given  only  to  such  Gladiators  as  were  slaves,  for  a  token 

of  their  obtaining  freedom.  The  rudis  seems  to  have  been  bestowed 

both  ou  slaves  and  freemen,  but  with  this  difference,  that  it  procured 


ior  the  former  no  more  than  a  discharge  from  any  farther  perform- 
ance in  public,  upon  which  they  commonly  turned  iauiatt^,  spending 
iheir  time  in  training  up  young  fencers.     Ovid  calls  it  tiita  rudis: 
Tutaque  deposito  poacitiir  ense  rudia. 

But  the  rudis,  wdien  given  to  such  persons  as,  being  free,  had 
hired  themselves  out  for  these  show^s,  restored  them  to  a  full  en- 
joyment of  their  liberty.  Both  these  sorts  of  rudiarii,  being  excused 
from  farther  service,  had  a  custom  to  hang  up  their  arms  in  the 
temple  of  Hercules,  the  patron  of  their  profession,  and  were  never 
called  out  again  without  their  consent.  Horace  has  given  us  a  full 
account  of  this  custom,  in  his  first  epistle  to  Maecenas: 

Prima  dictc  mihif  smnrna  dicetidc  camocna^ 
Spectatiim  satis,  et  doiiatum  jam  rudc^  quceris, 
JiLecerias,  iterum  antiquo  me  includerc  ludo. 
JVon  cadtin  est  >etasy  non  mens,      Vejtiniiis,  armis 
Herculis  ad  postern  ft  oris,  latet  abditus  agroy 
J\'e  populiim  extrema  toties  exoret  arena. 

Mreccnas,  you  whose  name  and  title  grac'd 

My  early  labours,  and  siiall  crown  my  last : 

Now,  when  I've  long  engag'd  with  wishM  succes?, 

And  full  of  fame,  obtain'd  my  writ  of  ease  ; 

While  sprightly  fancy  sits  with  heavy  age. 

Again  you'd  bring  itie  on  the  doubtful  stage. 

Vet  wise  Vejanius,  hanging  up  his  arms 

To  Hercules,  yon  httle  cottage  farms; 

^.est  he  be  forc'd,  if  giddy  fortune  turns. 

To  cringe  to  the  vile  rabble,  whom  he  scorns. 

f  he  learned  Dacier,  in  his  observations  on  this  place,  acquaint.s 
us,  that  it  was  a  custom  for  all  persons,  when  they  laid  down  any  art: 
or  employment,  to  consecrate  the  proper  instruments  of  their  call- 
ing to  the  particular  deity  who  was  acknowledged  for  the  president 
of  that  profession.  And  therefore  the  Gladiators,  when  thus  dis- 
charged, hung  up  their  arms  to  Hercules,  who  had  a  chapel  by 
every  amphitheatre;  and,  where  there  wTre  no  amphitheatres,  in 
circos;  and  over  every  place  assigned  to  such  manly  performances, 
there  stood  a  Hercides  with  his  club. 

We  may  take  our  leave  of  the  Gladiators  with  the  excellent  pas- 
sage of  Cicero,  which  may  serve  in  some  measure  as  an  apology 
for  the  custom  :  Crtidele  Gladiatorum  sfiectaculum  et  inhumanuhi 
noTuiullis  x'ideri  solet  ;  et  hand  6cio  an  7i6/n  ita  sit,  ut  nunc  Jit :  cunt 
vtro  sontes  ferro  dcfiugnabant,  auribus  fortasse  multx^  oculis  qui' 
dem  nulla  fiotcrat  esse  fortior  contra  dolorem  et  mortem  discifilina^ 
"  The  shows  of  (iladiators  may  possibly  to  some  persons  seem  bar- 
barous and  inhuman  :  And  indeed,  as  the  case  now  stands,  I  cannot 
say  that  the  censure  is  unjust ;  but  in  those  times,  when  only  guilty 

»  Tuscal.  Qusest.  2. 


\ 


: 


^ 


274 


THE  SATIRES 


persons  composed  the  number  of  combatants,  the  ear  perhaps  midi' 
receive  many  better  instructions  ;  but  it  is  impossible  that  any  thinjv 
which  afi'ccls  our  eyes  should  fortify  us  with  more  success  againb». 
the  assaults  of  iijrief  and  death." 


CHAPTER  V. 

OF  THE  I.IDI  SCEXIfl,  OK  STAriK-PLAYS  :  AND  FIRST,  OF  THE  SATIRI  s 
AND  THE  MIMIC  PIECES,  WITH  THE  RISE  AND  ADVANCES  OF  SUCH 
ENTEKTAINMKNTS   AMONO    vm-    un\f\\^ 


THE  Ludi  Scenici,  or  stage  plays,  have  been  commonly  divided 

into  four  species,  Satire,  Mimic,  Trai^edy,  and  Comedy.     The  elder 

Scalii^cr  will  have  satire  to  have  proceeded  from  tragedy,  in  the 

same  manner  as  the  mimn.w  from  comedy;  but  we  are  assured  ihib 

was  in  use  at  Rome,  long  before  the  more  perfect  dramas  had  gained 

a  place  on  the  stage      Xor  has  the  same  excellent  critic  been  more 

happy  in  tracing  the  original  of  this  sort  of  poetry  as  far  as  Greece: 

For  wc  cannot  suppose  it  to  bear  any  resemblance  to  the  chorus,  or 

dance  of  satyrs,  which  used  to  appear  in  the  theatres  at  Athens,  as 

an  appendage  to  some  of  their  tragedies,  thence  called  Satyrique. 

'J'his  kind  of  Circek  farce  was  taken  up  purely  in  the  characters  ot 

mirth  and  wantonness,  not  admitting  those  sarcastical  reflections 

which  were  the  very  essence  of  the  Roman  satire.     Therefore  Ca- 

saubon  and  Dacier,  without  casting  an  eye  towards  Greece,  make 

no  question  but  the  name  is  to  be  derived  from  satura,  a  Roman 

word  signifying^//;  the  7i  bein?:  rhnnged  into  nn  /,  after  the  same 

manner  as  ofituvru,^  and  .........„,„..,  v.  ere  afterwards   spelt  ofithnuff 

and  „-.  ,  mnifi.  Satura,  being  an  adjective,  must  be  supposed  to 
relate  to  the  substantive /ff?/.r,  a  platter  or  charger ;  such  as  they 
fdled  yearly  with  all  sorts  of  fruit,  and  ofiercd  to  their  gods  at  their 
festival,  as  the  firimitic:,  or  first  gathcrintrs  of  the  season.  Such  an 
cxprcsion  might  be  well  applied  to  this  kind  of  poem,  which  was 
full  of  various  matter,  and  written  on  different  subjects.  Nor  arc 
there  wanting  other  instances  of  the  same  way  of  speaking;  as  par- 
ticularly fur  sutnrum  scn(rnti(i.s  exi/uirere,  is  used  by  Sallust,  to 
signify  the  way  of  voting  in  the  senate,  when  i»eiiher  the  members 
were  told,  nor  tlie  voices  counted,  but  all  gave  their  suffrages  pro- 
misrtJoiis!i-.  nnd  -  it].r>..f  observing  any  order.     And  the  Histonx 


or  THE  ROMANS. 


275 


>iatur£'^  QY per  Saturuvi^  of  Fcstus,  were  nothing  else  but  miscella- 
neous tracts  of  history.  The  original  of  the  Roman  satire  will  lead 
us  into  the  knowledge  of  the  first  representations  of  persons,  and 
ihc  rude  essays  towards  dramatic  poetry,  in  the  rustic  ages  of 
Uonie;  for  which  we  are  beholden  to  the  accurate  research  of  Da- 
ricr,  and  the  improvement  of  him  by  Mr.  Dryden. 

During  the  space  of  almost  four  hundred  years  from  the  building 
ot  the  city,  the  Romans  had  never  known  any  entertainments  of  the 
stage.  Chance  and  jollity  first  fijund  out  those  verses  which  they 
(ailed  Satiiniian^  because  they  supposed  such  to  have  been  in  use 
under  Saturn,  and  Fcsceiuiijir^  from  Eescennia,  a  town  of  Tuscany, 
uhere  they  were  first  practised.  The  actors,  upon  occasion  of  mer- 
limcnt,  with  a  gross  and  rustic  kind  of  raillery,  reproached  one 
another  ex  tcmfiorr  with  their  failings;  and  at  the  same  time  were 
nothing  sparing  of  it  to  the  audience.  Somewhat  of  this  custom 
was  afterwards  retained  in  their  Saturnalia^  or  feast  of  Saturn,  cele- 
brated in  December ;  at  least  all  kind  of  freedom  of  speech  was  then 
allowed  to  slaves,  even  against  their  masters  ;  and  we  are  not  with- 
out some  imitation  of  it  in  our  Christmas  gambols.  We  cannot 
have  a  better  notion  of  this  rude  and  unpolished  kind  of  farce,  than 
by  imagining  a  company  of  clowns  on  a  holiday  dancing  lubberly, 
and  upbraiding  one  another,  in  ex  temjiore  doggerel,  with  their  de- 
fects and  vices,  and  the  stories  that  were  told  of  them  in  bake-houses 
and  barbers'  shops.4^ 

This  rough-cast  uidiewn  poetry  was  instead  of  stage-plays,  for 
the  space  of  a  hundred  and  twen  y  years  together;  but  then,  when 
they  began  to  be  somewhat  better  bred,  and  entered,  as  one  may 
say,  into  the  first  rudiments  of  civil  conversation,  they  left  these 
hedge-notes  for  another  sort  of  poem,  a  little  more  polished,  which 
was  also  full  of  pleasant  raillery,  but  without  any  mixture  of  ob- 
scenity. This  new  species  of  poetry  appeared  under  the  name  of 
satire,  because  of  its  variety,  and  was  adorned  with  compositions  of 
music,  and  with  dances. 

When  Livius  Andronicus,  about  the  year  of  Rome  511,  had  in- 
troduced the  new  entertainments  of  tragedy  and  comedy,  the  people 
neglected  and  abandoned  their  old  diversion  of  satires;  but,  not 
long  after,  they  took  them  up  again,  and  then  they  joined  them  to 
their  comedies,  playing  them  at  the  end  of  the  Drama;  as  the 
French  continue  at  this  day  to  act  their  farces  in  the  nature  of  a 
separate  representation  from  their  tragedies. 

A  year  after  Andronicus  had  opened  the  Roman  stage  with  his 
new  dramas,  Ennius  was  born,  who,  when  he  was  grown  to  man's 
estate,  having  seriously  considered  the  genius  of  the  people,  and  how 


276 


THL   SATIRES 


OF  TIIK  ROMANS. 


"^171 


eap:erly  they  followed  the  fust  satires,  thought  it  would  be  worth  hi> 
\vl»ile  to  refine  upon  the  j^rojccl,  and  to  write  satires,  not  to  be  acted 
on  the  theatre,  but  read.  The  event  was  answerable  to  his  exncc- 
latifm.  arid  his  design,  beinj^  improved  by  Pacuvius,  adorned  withj 
iTn»re  f^f  ar.cdu!  turn  by  Lucilius,  and  advanced  to  its  full  height  bv 
T?  ;jcc,  Ju^ci.al,  and  Persius,  grew  into  a  distinct  species  of  poetry, 
uij  ^^  V  v-r  met  with  a  kind  reception  in  the  world.  To  the  same 
original  we  owe  the  other  sort  of  Satire,  called  Varronian^  fromthe 
learned  Varro,  who  first  composed  it.  This  was  written  freely 
without  any  restraint  to  verse  or  prose,  but  consisted  of  an  inter- 
mixture of  both  ;  of  which  nature  arc  the  Satyricon  of  Petronius, 
Seneca's  mock  deification  of  the  emperor  Claudius,  and  Bocthius's 
cons.Wations. 

As  for  the  Aliniun^  from  Mif4.u(rdxt,  to  imitate^  Scaligcr  defines  it 
to  be,  ^'  a  poem  imitating  any  sort  of  actions,  so  as  to  make  them 
appear  ridiculous. ">  The  original  of  it  he  refers  to  the  comedies, 
in  which,  when  the  rhorus  went  ofithc  stage,  they  were  succeeded 
])y  a  sort  of  actors,  who  ^iit  ,1  tf,]  the  audience  for  some  time  with 
apish  postures  nnd  aiuit  ii.uk  •  .  TIk  y  were  not  masked,  but  had 
their  faces  smeared  over  with  soot,  and  dressed  themselves  in  lamb- 
skins, which  are  calbd  rcscia^  in  the  old  verses  of  the  Salii. 

They  ^vore  garlands  of  ivy,  and  carried  baskets  full  of  herbs  and 
Howcrs,  to  t!»c  honour  of  H:>cchus,  as  had  been  observed  in  the  fiibl 
institution  of  the  custom  ui  Athens.  They  ar^d  always  bare-foot, 
and  were  thence  called  Ptani/iedes. 

These  diversions  being  received  with  universal  applause  by  the 
people,  the  actors  look  assurance  to  model  them  into  a  distinct  en- 
tertaiimicnt  from  the  other  plays,  and  present  them  by  themselves. 
And  perhaps  it  was  not  till  now  that  they  undertook  to  write  several 
pieces  of  poetry  with  the  name  of  Mimi,  representing  an  imperfect 
sort  of  drama,  not  divided  into  acts,  and  performed  only  by  a  single 
person.  These  were  a  very  frequent  entertainment  of  the  Koniaii 
stage,  long  alter  tragedy  and  comedy  had  been  advanced  to  their 
full  height,  and  seemed  to  have  always  maintained  a  very  great 
esteem  in  the  town. 

The  two  famous  mimics,  or  Payitomimi^  as  they  called  them,  were 
Laberius  and  Publius,  both  contemporary  with  Julius  Caesar.  La- 
berius  was  a  person  of  the  equestrian  rank,  and,  at  threescore  years 
of  age,  acted  the  mimic  pieces  of  his  own  composing,  in  the  games 
which  Caesar  presented  to  the  people  ;  for  which  he  received  a  re- 
ward of  five  hundred  &esfrrtia  and  a  gold  ring,  and  so  recovered  the 

y  De  Re  Foet.  lib.  I.  wp.  10. 


Honour  which  he  had  forfeited  by  performing  on  the  stagc.^  Ma- 
crobius  has  given  a  part  of  a  prologue  of  this  author,  wherein  he 
secins  to  complain  of  the  obligations  which  Caesar  laid  on  him  to 
appear  in  the  quality  of  an  actor,  so  contrary  to  his  own  inclination, 
and  ".o  the  former  course  of  his  life.  Some  of  them,  which  may 
serve  for  a  taste  of  his  wit  and  style,  are  as  follow  : 

Fortrmiii  immoderata  in  bono  if  que  atquc  in  vudu^ 
Si  tibi  evat  libitum  literin'um  laudibus 
Flovis  cacumen  nostra  faiHiX  frangevcj 
Cur^  aim  vigtlmm  membris  pvxvindantibus^ 
Satiffacerv  popvlo  et  tali  cum  poteram  viro, 
JWn  Jhj-ibilem  mt-  concuiTQSti  ut  cavperes? 
JVv7ic  me  quo  dtjices  ?    Qr/id  ad  scenam  affcvu  .- 
JJecoix'm  formde,  au  diiputatem  corporis? 
Jlnimi  vivtutein^  an  Tocis  jitcttvda;  somtm  • 
Ut  hedera  .serpens  virrs  ui-boreas  nccat ; 
Ita  mc  vetu-stas  avipleaii  aunovitm  eiucat. 
Sepulchvi  similiHy  luliil  nisi  nomen  rctineo. 

Horace  indeed  expressly  taxes  his  compositions  with  want  of 
elegance,*  but  Scaliger**  thinks  the  censure  to  be  very  unjust;  and 
•hat  the  verses  cited  by  IVlacrobius  are  much  better  than  those  of 
Horace,  in  which  this  reflection  is  to  be  found. 

There  goes  a  sharp  repartee  of  the  same  Laberius  upon  Tally, 
when,  upon  receiving  the  golden  ring  of  Caesar,  he  went  to  resume 
.his  seat  among  the  knights  ;  they  out  of  a  principle  of  honour  seem- 
ed very  unwilling  to  receive  him  :  Cicero  particularly  told  him,  as 
he  passed  by,  that  indeed  he  would  make  room  for  him  with  all  his 
heart,  but  that  he  was  squeezed  up  already  himself.  No  wonder 
•says  Laberius)  that  you,  who  commonly  make  use  of  two  seats  at 
'jiice,  fancy  yourself  squeezed  up,  when  you  sit  like  other  people. 
In  which  he  gave  a  very  severe  wipe  on  the  double  dealing  of  the 
orator.^ 

Publius  was  a  Syrian  by  birth,  but  received  his  education  at  Rome 
In  the  condition  of  a  slave.  Having  by  several  specimens  of  Avit  ob- 
-ained  his  freedom,  he  set  to  write  mimic  pieces,  and  acted  them 
with  wonderful  applause  about  the  towns  in  Italy.  At  last,  being 
*)rought  to  Rome  to  bear  a  part  in  Caesar's  plays,  he  challenged  all 
ihe  dramatic  writers  and  actors,  and  won  the  prize  from  every  man 
of  them,  one  by  one,  even  from  Laberius  himself.*^  A  collection  oi 
sentences  taken  out  of  his  works  is  still  extant.  Joseph  Scaliger 
gave  them  a  very  high  encomium,  and  thought  it  worth  his  while 
to  turn  them  into  Greek. 


•^  Sact.  in  Jul.  cap.  39.  Macrob.  Saturn,  lib.  2.  cap.  7. 
*  Lib.  1.  Sat.  10.  ^  Macrob.  Saturn,  lib.  2.  cap.  7 

^  De  Re  Poet.  lib.  1.  cap.  10.  ^  Ibid. 

37 


I 


27  S 


THE  TRAGEDY  AND  C0MED7 


OF  THE  ROMANS. 


279 


CHAP.  VI 


OF  IHE  ROMAN  TRAGEDY  AND  COMEDY. 

THE  Roman  Tragedy  and  Comedy  were  wholly  borrowed  from 
the  Grecians,  and  therefore  do  not  so  properly  fall  under  the  present 
design ;  yet,  in  order  to  a  ri^ht  understanding  of  these  pieces, 
there  is  scope  enough  for  a  very  useful  inquiry,  without  roaming 
so  far  as  Athens,  unless  upon  a  necessary  errand.  The  parts  of  a 
play,  agreed  on  by  ancient  and  modern  writers,  are  these  four:  Firs: 
the  Protasi.s,  or  entrance,  which  gives  a  light  only  to  the  charac- 
ters of  the  persons,  and  proceeds  very  little  to  any  part  of  the  ac 
tion.  Secondly,  the  KfiitasiSy  or  working  up  of  the  plot,  where  the 
play  grows  warmer;  the  design  or  action  of  it  is  drawing  on,  and 
you  see  something  promising  that  will  come  to  pass.  Thirdly,  the 
Catafstafifi^  or,  in  a  Roman  word,  the  Status^  the  height  and  full 
growth  of  the  play  :  this  may  properly  be  called  the  counter-turn, 
•which  destroys  that  expectation,  embroils  the  action  in  new  diflicul- 
culties,  and  leaves  us  far  distant  from  that  hope  in  which  it  found 
us.  Lastly,  the  Cataatrofihe^  or  Awt<5,  the  discovery,  or  unravelling 
of  the  plot.  Here  we  see  all  things  settling  again  on  their  first  founda- 
tion, and,  the  obstacles  which  hindered  the  design  or  action  of  the 
play  at  once  removed,  it  ends  with  that  resemblance  of  truth  and 
nature,  that  the  audience  are  satisfied  with  the  conduct  of  it.«  It  is 
a  question  whether  the  first  Roman  dramas  were  divided  into  acts; 
or  at  least  it  seems  probable,  that  they  were  not  admitted  into  co- 
medy, till  after  it  had  lost  its  chorus,  and  so  stood  in  need  of  some 
more  necessary  divisions  than  could  be  made  by  the  music  only. 
Yet  the  five  acts  were  so  established  in  the  time  of  Horace,  that  he 
gives  it  for  a  rule,  Ars  Poet.  189  : 

<Xtve  minor,  neu  sit  quinto  productior  actii 
Fabula, 

The  distinction  of  the  scenes  seems  to  have  been  an  invention  ol 
the  grammarians,  and  is  not  to  be  found  in  the  old  copies  of  Plautus 
and  Terence  ;  and  therefore  these  are  wholly  left  out  in  the  excel- 
lent French  and  English  translations. 

The  Dramas  presented  at  Rome  were  divided  in  general  into  Pal- 
Uat<x  and   Togut<e,  Grecian  and  properly  Roman.     In  the  former, 


the  plot  being  laid  in  Greece,  the  actors  were  habited  according  to 
the  fashion  of  that  country  ;  in  the  other  the  persons  were  supposed 
to  be  Romans.  But  then  the  comedies  properly  Roman  were  of 
several  sorts ;  Pratextatx .^whtn  the  actors  were  supposed  to  be  per- 
sons of  quality,  such  as  had  the  liberty  of  wearing  the  Prantexta^  or 
purple  gown  ;  Tabernariet^  when  the  Taherna^  low  ordinary  build- 
ings, were  expressed  in  the  scenes,  the  persons  being  of  the  lower 
rank.  Suetonius^  informs  us.  that  C.  Melissus,  in  the  time  of  Au- 
gustus, introduced  a  new  sort  of  Togatx^  which  he  called  Trabcatcs, 
Monsieur  Uacier  is  of  opinion,  that  they  were  wholly  taken  up  in 
matters  relating  to  the  camp,  and  that  the  persons  represented  were 
some  of  the  chief  officers ;«  for  the  Trabea  was  the  proper  habit  of 
the  Consul,  when  he  set  forward  on  any  warlike  design.  There  was 
a  species  of  comedy  different  from  both  these,  and  more  inclining 
to  farce,  which  they  called  Atellana  from  Atella^  a  town  of  the  Os- 
cians  in  Campania,  where  it  was  first  invented.  The  chief  design  of 
it  was  mirth  and  jesting,  (though  sometimes  with  a  mixture  of  de- 
bauchery and  lascivious  postures  ;)  and  therefore  the  actors  were  not 
reckoned  among  the  Histrioncs^  or  common  players,  but  kept  the 
benefit  of  their  tribe,  and  might  be  listed  for  soldiers,  a  privilege 
allowed  only  to  freemen.  Sometimes  perhaps  the  Atcllanx  were 
presented  between  the  acts  of  other  comedies,  by  way  oK  Ex  odium  ^ 
or  interlude  ;  as  we  meet  with  Exodium  Atellanicum  in  Suetonius.** 

Though  all  the  rules  by  which  ihc  drama  is  practised  at  this  day, 
cither  such  as  relate  to  the  justness  and  symmetry  of  the  plot,  or 
the  episodical  ornament,  such  as  descriptions,  narrations,  and  other 
beauties  not  essential  to  the  play,  were  delivered  to  us  by  the  an- 
cients, and  the  judgments  which  we  make,  of  all  performances  of 
this  kind,  are  guided  by  their  examples  and  directions;  yet  there 
are  several  things  belonging  to  the  old  dramatic  pieces,  which  we 
cannot  at  all  understand  by  the  modern  ;  since,  not  being  essential 
to  these  works,  they  have  been  long  disused.  Of  this  sort  we  may 
reckon  up,  as  particularly  worth  our  observation,  the  buskin  and 
the  sock,  the  masques,  the  chorus,  and  the  flutes. 

The  Cothurnus  and  the  Soccua  were  such  eminent  marks  of  dis- 
tinction between  the  old  tragedy  and  comedy,  that  they  were 
brought,  not  only  to  signify  those  distinct  species  of  dramatic  poe- 
try, but  to  express  the  sublime  and  the  humble  style  in  any  other 
composition  ;  as  Martial  calls  Virgil  Cot/iur?uiius,  though  he  never 
meddled  with  tragedy : 

Grande  Cothurnati  pone  JMaronis  opiis. 


Dryden's  Dramat.  Essay. 


f  De  Claris  Grammat.  21. 

K  Ab^  on  Horace  De  Art,  Poet. 


»»  Tiber.  A"^ 


280 


THE  TRAGLDY  AND  COMEDV 


OF  THE  ROMANS. 


281 


This  Crjthurnua  is  thought  to  have  been  a  square  high  sort  of 
boot,  which  made  the  actors  appear  abo\  e  the  ordinary  size  of  mor- 
tals, such  as  they  supposed  the  old  heroes  to  have  generally  been- 
and  at  the  same  time,  giving  them  leave  to  move  but  slowly,  were 
well  accommodated  to  the  state  anl  gravity  which  subjects  of  thai 
nature  required.  Yet  it  is  plain  they  were  not  in  use  only  on  the 
stage;  for  Virgil  l)rings  in  the  goddess  Venus  in  the  habit  of  a  '1\- 
rian  maid,  telling  .Eneas,  i.  340: 

Virginibw^  Tyriis  mos  est  gesture  fthavttvamf 
PurpiirtoqiLc  alte  suras  vincire  cothuruo. 

From  whi(  h  it  appear*;,  that  the  hunters  sometimes  wore  buskiir 
to  secure  their  legs;  but  then  we  must  suppose  them  to  be  mucl. 
lighter  and  better  contrived  than  the  other,  for  fear  they  should 
prove  a  hindrance  to  the  swiftness  and  agility  required  in  that  sport 
The  women  in  some  parts  of  Italy  still  wear  a  sort  of  shoes,  or  ra- 
ther stilts,  somewhat  like  tliese  buskins,  which  they  call  Ciofifiini: 
Lassels  informs  us,  that  he  had  seen  them  at  Venice  a  full  half-yaiv 
high. 

The  Socci  was  a  sligiit  kind  of  covering  for  the  feet,  whence  tlu 
fashion  and  the  name  of  our  socks  are  derived.  The  comedians  won 
these,  to  represent  the  vility  of  the  persons  they  represented,  as  dc^ 
bauched  young  sparks,  old  crazy  misers,  pimps,  parasites,  strum- 
pets, and  the  rest  of  that  gang;  for  the  sock  being  proper  to  the 
women,  as  it  was  very  light  and  thin,  was  always  counted  scandal 
ous  when  worn  by  men.  Thus  Seneca'  exclaims  against  Caligula 
for  sitting  to  Judge  upon  life  and  death  in  a  rich  pair  of  socks, 
adorned  with  gold  and  silver. 

Another  reason  why  they  were  taken  up  by  the  actors  of  comedy, 
might  be,  because  they  were  the  fittest  that  could  be  imagined  for 
dancing.  Thus  Catullus  invokes  Hymen,  the  patron  of  weddings, 
lib.  9  : 

Ifuc  vent  niveo  gerens 
Liiteiim  pede  soccum, 
I'^jccitiisijue  hiltiri  die^ 
.  Viiptia  lid  ronci/w  n  s 
ioce  carmina  tiiinuLly 
Pelle  Immum  peclibns 


The  Persona,  or  mask,  A.  (ieilius^  derives  (according  to  an  old 
author)  horn  fiersrmo,  to  sound  thoroughly;  because  these  vizards 
being  put  over  the  face,  and  left  open  at  the  mouth,  rendered  the 
voice  much  clearer  and  fuller,  by  contracting  it  into  a  lesser  com- 
pass.  But  Scaliger  will  not  allow  of  this  conjecture.    However  the 


•  IJcnefic.  lib.  2.  cap.  12, 


'  Xoct,  lib.  J.  cap.  7. 


reason  of  it  (which  is  all  that  concerns  us  at  present)  appears  from 
all  the  old  figures  of  the  masks,  in  which  we  find  always  a  very  large 
wide  hole  designed  for  the  mouth.  Madam  Dacier,  who  met  with 
the  draughts  of  the  comic  vizards  in  a  very  old  manuscript  of  Te- 
rence, informs  us,  that  they  were  not  like  ours,  which  cover  only 
the  face,  but  that  they  came  over  the  whole  head,  and  had  always  a 
sort  of  peruke  of  hair  fastened  on  them,  proper  to  the  persons  whom 
they  were  to  represent. 

The  original  of  the  mask  is  referred  by  Horace  to  yEschylus; 
whereas  before  the  actors  had  no  other  disguise,  but  to  smear  over 
their  faces  with  odd  colours :  and  yet  this  was  well  enough,  when 
their  stage  was  no  better  than  a  cart : 

fq-notutn  TracficiV  genus  invenisse  CamccTKe^ 

l)icitin\  ct  plaustris  vexisse  PoematUy  Thesftis  : 

Qiice  canerent  agerentque  pernncti  fttcihus  ora. 

Post  huncy  personct  pnllceqne  reperior  honest  if 

^schf/hiSf  et  modicis  implevit  pxdpita  tignis^ 

Et  docuit  magmimquc  loqui^  mtiqne  Cothwiin.         A  lis  Poet.  27.1. 

When  Thespis  first  exposed  the  trag-ic  muse. 

Rude  were  the  actors,  and  a  cart  the  scene ; 

Where  ghastly  faces,  stain'd  with  lees  of  wine, 

Frighted  tlic  children,  and  amus'd  the  crowd. 

This  il^schylus  (with  indignation)  saw 

And  built  a  stage,  found  out  a  decent  dress, 

lirought  vizards  in  (a  civiler  disguise), 

And  taught  men  how  to  speak,  and  how  to  act.        RoscoMMOjr 

The  C//orw«,  Hedelin  defines  to  be  a  company  of  actors,  repre- 
senting the  assembly  or  body  of  those  persons,  who  either  were  pre- 
sent, or  probably  might  be  so,  upon  that  place  or  scene  where  the 
business  was  supposed  to  be  transacted.  This  is  exactly  observed 
in  the  four  Grecian  dramatic  poets,  ^tschyhis,  Sophocles,  Euripides, 
and  Aristophanes ;  but  the  only  Latin  tragedies  which  remain,  those 
under  the  name  of  Seneca,  as  they  are  faulty  in  many  respects,  so 
particularly  are  they  in  the  chorusses  ;  for  sometimes  they  hear  all 
that  is  said  upon  the  stage,  see  all  that  is  done,  and  speak  very  pro- 
perly to  all;  at  other  times  one  would  think  they  were  blind,  deaf, 
or  dumb.  In  many  of  these  dramas,  one  can  hardly  tell  whom  they 
represent,  how  they  were  dressed,  what  reason  brings  them  ijw  the 
stage,  or  why  they  are  of  one  sex  more  than  of  another.  Indeed 
the  verses  are  fine,  full  of  thought,  and  overloaded  with  conceit,  but 
niay  in  most  places  be  very  well  spared,  without  spoiling  any  thing, 
either  in  the  sense  or  reputation  of  the  poem.  Besides,  the  Thtbaw 
has  no  chorus  at  all,  which  may  give  us  occasion  to  doubt  of  what 
Scaliger  affirms  so  positively,  that  tragedy  was  never  without  cho- 
russes. For  it  seems  probable  enough,  that  in  the  time  of  the  de- 
hauched  and  loose  emperors,  when  mimics  and  buffoons  came  in  for 


282 


THE  TRAGEDY  AND  COMEDY 


OF  THE  ROMANS. 


283 


interludes  to  tragedy  as  well  as  comedy,  the  chorus  ceased  by  dc- 
grees  to  be  a  part  of  the  dramatic  poem,  and  dwindled  into  a  troop 
of  musicians  and  dancers,  who  marked  the  intervals  of  the  acts. 

The  office  of  the  chorus  is:  thus  excellently  delivered  by  Horace 
Ue  Art.  Poet.  193:  ' 

.'Ictori.'i  pnrtcn  Chorun  officiunuine  virile 
Jh'Jhidat :  7ieu  quid  meiliofi  ivtetrinnt  actm^ 
Qnod  noil  proposito  conducat  et  hdcrcat  a/tte, 
Illf  bonis  favtatqxif  et  anvilietur  atniciny 
Et  regut  irutosy  et  amet  peccare  timentes  ,- 
ille  dupes  laudtt  fnensa  brevis ,-  ille  salubrem 
Ju^Uitianiy  (I'gesque  et  apevtis  otiu  portis, 
J/le  tfgat  commissa ,-  deosque  precctur  et  oreU 
Ut  redeut  miseriSy  abeat  fortiina  superbis, 

A  chorus  should  supply  what  action  wants, 

And  has  a  |[,''enerous  and  manly  part. 

Bridles  wild  rag-e,  loves  rigid  honesty. 

And  strict  observance  of  impartial  laws. 

Sobriety,  security,  and  peace. 

And  begs  the  gods  to  turn  bright  fortune's  wheel, 

To  raise  the  wretched,  and  pull  down  tlie  proud  ; 

Hut  notinng  must  be  sung  between  the  acts 

Hut  what  some  way  conduces  to  the  plot.  iioscomhox. 

1  iiis  ac(  uuiit  is  chiclly  to  be  understood  of  the  chorus  of  traije- 
vlics  ;  yet  the  old  comedies,  we  are  assured,  had  tlicir  chorusscs  too, 
as  yet  appears  from  Aristophanes:  where,  besides  those  composed 
of  the  ordinary  sort  of  persons,  we  meet  with  one  of  clouds,  another 
of  frogs,  and  a  third  of  wasps,  but  all  very  conformable  to  the  nature 
of  the  subject,  and  extremely  comical. 

It  would  be  foreign  to  onr  present  purpose  to  trace  the  original 
of  the  chorus,  and  to  show  how  it  was  regulated  by  Thespis  (gene- 
rally  honoured  with  the  title  of  the  first  tragedian);  whereas  before 
it  was  nothing  else  but  a  company  of  musicians  singing  and  dancing 
m  honour  of  Bacchus.  It  may  be  more  proper  to  observe  how  it 
came,  after  some  time,  to  be  left  out  in  comedy,  as  it  is  in  that  of 
the  Homaiis.  Horace's  reason  is,  that  the  malignity  and  satirical 
luimonrh  of  the  poets  was  the  cause  of  it;  for  they  made  the  cho- 
russes  abuse  people  so  severely,  and  with  so  bare  a  face,  that  the 
magistrates  at  last  forbade  them  to  use  any  at  all :   De  Art.  Poet.  283. 


C/iorusque 


Tnipiter  obtamfy  subluiojure  nocendi. 

I3ut,  perhaps,  if  the  rules  of  probability  had  not  likewise  seconded 
this  proiiibition,  the  poets  would  have  preserved  their  chorus  still, 
bating  the  satirical  edge  of  it.  Therefore  a  farther  reason  may  be 
ottered  for  this  alteration.  Comedy  took  its  model  and  constitution 
from  tragedy;  and,  when  the  downright  abusing  of  living  persons 
was  prohibited,  ihey  invented  new  subjects,  which  they  governed  I'V 


;he  rules  of  tragedy  :  but  as  they  were  necessitated  to  paint  the  ac- 
tions of  the  vulgar,  and  consequently  confined  to  mean  events,  they 
generally  chose  the  place  of  their  scene  in  some  street,  before  the 
houses  of  those  whom  they  supposed  concerned  in  the  plot :  now 
it  was  not  very  likely  that  there  should  be  such  a  company  in  those 
places  managing  an  intrigue  of  inconsiderable  persons  from  morn- 
ing till  night.  Thus  comedy  of  itself  let  fall  the  chorus,  which  it 
could  not  preserve  with  any  probability. 

The  Tibia:,  or  flutes,  are  as  little  understood  as  any  particular  sub- 
ject of  antiquity,  and  yet  without  the  knowledge  of  them  we  can 
make  nothing  of  the  titles  prefixed  to  Terence's  comedies.  Horace 
gives  us  no  farther  light  into  this  matter,  than  by  observing  the  dif- 
ference between  the  small  rural  pipe,  and  the  larger  and  louder  flute, 
afterwards  brought  into  fashion  ;  however  his  account  is  not  to  be 
passed  by ;  J7's  Poet.  202 : 

Tibia  non  ut  nunc  orichalco  vinctUy  tubiVque 
^■£mida  ;  sed  tenids  simplexque  fovamine  pauco, 
.idspirare  et  adesse  chons  erat  utilisy  atqne 
J\'ondum  spissa  7U7nis  cornplere  sediliajiatu  : 
Quo  sane  pop ul us  nurnerabilis^  uipote  pannn), 
Ktfvuifi  castusque  verecundusqut-  coibat^ 
Postqnam  capit  agros  extendeie  inctor,  et  urbcni 
JjOtior  amplecti  muniSf  vinoque  diurno 
Placavi  Genius  festis  itnpune  die  bus  ; 
Jlccessit  7imnensque  modisque  liceiitia  luajor. 
hidoctus  quid  eu/w  saperety  libeique  laboyum 
liustic7is  urba7io  confusuSy  twpis  honesto  ? 
Sic  piisae  motuinque  et  luocninaiu  addidit  arti 
TibiceUf  timxitque  vagus  per  pulpit  a  veste7ii. 

First  the  shrill  sound  of  a  small  rural  pipe 

(Not  loud  like  trumpets,  nor  adorned  as  now) 

Was  entertainn)ent  for  the  infant  stage, 

And  pleased  the  thin  and  bashful  audience 

Of  our  well-meaning  frugal  ancestors. 

But  when  our  walls  and  limits  were  enlarged, 

And  men  (grown  wanton  by  prosperity) 

Studied  new  arts  of  luxury  and  ease, 

The  verse,  the  music,  and  the  scenes  improved  ; 

For  how  should  ignorance  be  judge  of  wit  ? 

Or  men  of  sense  applaud  the  jests  of  fools  ? 

Then  came  rich  clothes  and  graceful  action  in, 

And  instruments  were  taught  more  moving  notes,     roscommo-. 

This  relation,  though  very  excellent,  cannot  solve  the  main  diffi- 
culty:  and  that  is,  to  give  the  proper  distinction  of  the  flutes,  ac- 
rording  to  the  several  names  under  which  we  find  them,  as  the 
Pares  and  Imfiares^  the  Dextra  and  Sinistra^  the  Lydia,  tlje  Sar- 
^ana,  and  the  Plirygi((.  Most  of  the  eminent  critics  have  made 
some  essays  towards  the  clearing  of  this  subject,  particularly  Sca- 
liger,  Aldus  Manutius,  Salmasius,  and  Tanaquillus  Faber ;  from 
whose  collections,  and  her  own  admirable  judgment,  Madam  Dacier 
Has  lately  given  us  a  very  rational  account  of  the  matter.    The 


284 


THE  TRAGEDY  AND  COMEDY 


OF  THE  RO^IAXfi. 


285 


performers  of  the  music  (says  he)  played  always  on  two  ilutcs  the 
whole  time  of  the  comedy  ;  that  which  they  stopped  with  their  right 
hand,  was  on  that  account  called  right-handed  ;  and  that  which  they 
stopped  with  their  left,  Icli-handcdi  the  first  had  but  a  few  holes, 
and  sounded  a  deep  base ;  the  other  had  a  great  number  of  holes, 
and  gave  a  shriller  and  sharper  note.     When  the  musicians  played 
on  two  flutes  of  a  different  sound,  they  used  to  say  the  piece  was 
played  tihiis  imjiarihus^  with  unequal fiutes^  or  tibiis  dextris  et  si- 
mstris^  with  riir/it  and  left-handed  flutes.     When  they  played  on 
two  flutes  of  the  same  sotind,  they  used  to  say  the  music  was  per- 
formed tihiifi  fiarihua  dextrisy  on  equal  ritrfit-handed  flutes^  if  they 
were  of  the  deeper  sort;  or  else  tibiis  fiarihus  sinifitris^  ov\  cr/uat 
iefi'handedflutef^y  if  they  were  those  of  the  shriller  note. 

Two  equal  right-handed  flutes  they  called  Zz/rfm/z,  two  equal  left- 
handed  ones  Sarrans  or  Tijrian  ;  two  unequal  flutes  Phryi^iany  as 
imitations  of  the  music  of  those  countries :  The  latter  sort  Virijil 
expressly  attributes  to  the  Phrygians,  y^lncid.  9.  618: 

O  vere  Pliry^ixt  neque  enim  Phrtjg-efi  !  ite  par  altn 
Dindiimuy  ubl  assuetis  biforetn  dat  tibia  cantum. 

Where,  by  biforem  cantum^  the  commentators  understand  an  equal 
sound,  such  as  was  made  by  two  different  pipes,  one  flat,  and  the 
other  sharp. 

The  title  ot  Terence's  Andria  cannot  be  made  out  according  to 
this  explanation,  unless  wc  suppose  (as  there  is  very  good  reason) 
that  the  music  sometimes  changed  in  the  acting  of  a  play,  and  at  the 
proper  intervals  two  right-handed  and  two  left-handed  flutes  might 
be  used. 

Our  late  ingenious  translators  of  Terence  are  of  a  different  opinioii 
from  the  French  lady,  when  they  render  tibiin  fiaribus  dextris  et  si- 
nistrisy  two  equal  flutes,  the  one  right-handed,  and  the  other  left- 
handed  ;  whereas  the  music  should  seem  rather  to  have  been  per- 
formed all  along  on  two  equal  flutes,  sometimes  on  two  right-handed, 
and  sometimes  on  two  left-handed. 

Old  Donatus  would  have  us  believe  that  the  right-handed  or  Ly- 
dian  flutes  denoted  the  more  serious  matter  and  language  of  the  co- 
medy ;  that  the  left-handed,  or  Sarrams,  were  proper  to  express  the 
lightness  of  a  more  jocose  style  ;  and  that,  when  a  right-handed  flute 
was  joined  with  a  left-handed,  it  gave  us  to  understand  the  mixture  of 
gravity  and  mirth  in  the  same  play.  But  since  the  title  of  the  Heau- 
tontimoroumenos,  or  Selftonnenter,  informs  us,  that  the  music  was 
performed  the  first  time  of  acting  on  unequal  flutes,  and  the  second 
time  on  right-handed  flutes,  \xe  cannot  agree  with  the  old  scholiast, 
Avilhout  supposing  the  same  play  at  one  time  to  be  partly  serious,  and 


^)artiy  merry,  and  at  another  time  to  be  wholly  of  the  graver  sort, 
uhich  would  be  ridiculous  to  imagine;  therefore  the  ingenious  lady 
happily  advances  a  very  fair  opinion,  that  the  music  was  not  guided 
by  the  subject  of  the  play,  but  by  the  occasion  on  which  it  was  pre- 
sented. Thus  in  the  pieces  which  were  acted  at  funeral  solemnities, 
the  music  was  performed  on  two  right-handed  flutes,  as  the  most 
grave  and  melancholy.  In  those  acted  on  any  joyful  account,  the 
music  consisted  of  two  left-handed  flutes,  as  the  briskest,  and  most 
airy.  But  in  the  great  festivals  of  the  gods,  which  participated  of 
an  equal  share  of  mirth  and  religion,  the  music  in  the  comedies  was 
performed  with  unequal  flutes,  the  one  right-handed,  and  the  other 
icft-handed  ;  or  else  by  turns,  sometimes  on  two  right-handed  flutes, 
and  sometimes  on  two  left-handed,  as  may  be  judged  of  Terence's 
Andria. 

If  any  thing  farther  deserves  our  notice  in  relation  to  the  Roman 
Iramas,  it  is  the  remarkable  difference  between  their  actors  and 
iliose  of  Greece;  for  at  Athens  the  actors  were  generally  persons 
of  good  birth  and  education,  for  the  most  part  orators  or  poets  of 
ihe  first  rank.  Sometimes  we  find  kings  themselves  performing  on 
the  theatres;  and  Cornelius  Nepos  assures  us,  that  to  appear  on 
;lic  public  stage  was  not  in  the  least  injurious  to  any  man's  charac- 
ter or  honour.** 

But  in  Rome  we  meet  with  a  quite  contrary  practice;  for  the  His- 
'hones  (so  called  from  Hister,  signifying  a  player  in  the  language 
of  the  Tuscans,  from  whom  they  were  first  brought  to  Rome,  to  ap- 
pease the  gods  in  the  time  of  a  plague)  were  the  most  scandalous 
«ompany  imaginable,   none  of  that  profession  being  allowed  the 
privilege  to   belong   to  any  tribe,  or  ranked  any  higher  tiian  the 
■laves;  however,  if  any  of  them  happened  at  the  same  time  to  be 
excellent  artists,  and  men  of  good  morals,  they  seldom  failed  of  the 
'Steem  and  respect  of  the  chicfest  persons  in  the  commonwealth. 
This  is  evident  from  the  account  we  have  in  history  of  the  admira- 
ule  Roscius,  of  whom  Tully,  his  familiar  friend,  has  left  this  lasting 
•.ommcndation  : — **  Cum  artifcx  ejusmodi  sit,  ut  solus  dignus  videa- 
iur  esse  cjui  in  scena  spectelui';  tum  vir  ejusmodi  est,  ut  solus  dig- 
nus videatur  qui  eo  non  accedat."^     "  So  complete  an  artist,  that 
!ie  seemed  the  only  person  who  deserved  to  tread  the  stage;  and 
}et  at  the  same  time  so  excellent  a  man  in  all  other  respects,  that 
he  seemed  the  only  person  who  of  all  men  should  not  take  up  that 
;)rofcssion," 


^  In  Prjefat.  Vit. 


•  Pro  Quinct. 


•r.^ 


f 


'2H(j 


THE   SACRED  GA.ME.S 


OF  THE   ROMANS. 


287 


CriAP.  VJf 


Ol    THE   SVrilKIJ,   VDIIVF,   A  NO   FUNEfiAL   t^A.ME.  . 

LI  Hi  sacred  p;amcs,  bcing^  instituted  on  several  occasions  to  liic 
honour  of  several  deities,  are  divided  into  many  species,  all  whici. 
very  frequently  occur  in  authors,  and  may  be  thus  in  short  described. 
The  Lldi  Meoalfnses  were  instituted  to  the  honourof  the  great 
goddess,  or  the  Mother  of  the  gods,  when  her  statue  was  brouf^l: 
"ivith  so  much  pomp  from  Pessinum  to  Rome  ;  they  consisted  on!v 
of  scenical  sports,  and  were  a  solemn  time  of  invitation  to  entertain 
Tucnts  amoni;  friends.  In  the  solemn  procession  the  women  danced 
before  the  image  of  the  goddess,  and  the  magistrates  appeared  in 
all  their  robes,  whence  came  the  phrase  of  Pur/iura  Mcgatcnuis. 
They  lasted  six  days,  from  the  day  before  the  Nones  of  April,  Xo 
the  Ides.  At  first  they  seem  to  have  been  called  the  JXIc^alrnsia, 
from  Meyxi,  great,  and  iifierwards  to  have  lost  the  7;  ;  since  we  find 
them  more  fre»iucntly  under  the  name  of  Mrsfa/^sia.  It  is  j^arti- 
cularly  remarkable  in  these  games,  that  no  servant  was  allowed  t- 
^ear  a  part  in  the  celebration. 

The  LuDi  CEKi.ALi.s  were  designed  to  the  honourof  Ceres,  and 
borrowed  from  Klcusine  in  Grctice.  In  these  games  the  matrons  ir 
prcscnlcd  tb.c  grief  of  Ceres,  after  sl.c  had  lost  her  daughter  I^ro 
srrpine,  and  her  travels  to  hnd   her  again.     They  were  held  from 
*ho  day  before  the  Ides  of  April,  eight  days  together  in  the  Cir^ll^- 
where,  besides  the  combats  of  horsemen,  and  other  diversions,  wa 
}cd  up  the  Pomfta  CircetiNi!:,  or  Crrcchf^.  consisting  of  a  solemn  pro- 
fession of  the  persons  that  were  to  engage  in  the  exercises,  accorn 
panied  with  the  magistrates  and  ladies  of  quality  :  the  statues  of  \\n 
gods,  and  of  famous  men.  being  carried  along  in  state,  on  waggon 
which  they  called  Tlinis{^. 

LuDi  Flokam^s,  sacred  to  Flora,  and  celebrated  (upon  advice  o! 
the  Sibylline  oracles)  cvch'  spring,  to  beg  a  blessing  on  the  grass 
Trees,  and  flowers.  Most  have  been  of  opinion  that  they  owed  thei; 
original  to  a  Himous  whore,  who,  having  gained  a  great  estate  by  he: 
irade,  left  the  commonwrallh  hrr  heir,  with  thi:^  condition,  tha^ 
every  year  they  should  celebrate  her  birth-day  with  public  sports; 
the  magistrates,  to  avoid  such  a  public  scandal,  and  at  the  same 
time  to  keep  their  promise,  held  the  games  on  the  day  appointed, 
bvU.  pretended  that  it  was  done  in  the  h.onour  of  a  new  goddess,  the 


patroness  of  flowers.  Whether  this  conjecture  be  true  or  not,  we 
are  certain  that  the  main  part  of  the  solemnity  w-as  managed  by  a 
company  of  lewd  strumpets,  who  ran  up  and  down  naked,  some- 
jinu's  dancing,  sometimes  fighting,  or  acting  the  mimic.  However, 
:t  came  to  pass,  the  wisest  and  gravest  Romans  were  not  for  discon- 
tinuing this  custom,  though  the  most  indecent  imaginable;  for  Por- 
lius  Cato,  when  he  was  present  at  these  games,  and  saw  the  people 
ashamed  to  let  the  women  strip  while  he  was  there,  immediately 
went  out  of  the  theatre,  to  let  the  ceremony  have  its  course."* 
Learned  men  are  now  agreed,  that  the  vulgar  notion  of  Flora,  the 
strumpet,  is  purely  a  fiction  of  Lactaiitiua^  from  whom  it  was  ta^cn. 
Flora  appears  to  have  been  a  Sabine  goddess ;  and  the  Ludi  Flora- 
leti  to  have  been  instituted  A.  U.  C.  613,  with  tlie  fines  of  many  per- 
sons then  convicted  of  the  Criiiien  Pccnlatun^  for  appropriating  to 
:hcmsclves  the  public  land  of  the  state." 

LuDi  Martiales,  instituted  to  the  honour  of  Mars,  and  held 
twice  in  the  year,  on  the  4th  of  the  Ides  of  May,  and  again  on  the 
Kalends  of  August,  the  day  on  which  his  temple  was  consecrated. 
They  had  no  particular  ceremonies  that  we  can  meet  with,  besides 
the  ordinary  sports  in  the  Circus  and  amphitheatre. 

Lldi  Apollinares,  celebrated  to  the  honour  of  Apollo.  They 
owe  their  original  to  an  old  prophetical  sort  of  a  poem  casually 
found,  in  which  the  Romans  were  advised,  that,  if  they  desired  to 
drive  out  the  troops  of  their  enemies  which  infested  their  borders, 
they  should  institute  yearly  games  to  Apollo,  and  at  the  time  of 
their  celebration  make  a  collection  out  of  the  public  and  private 
blocks,  for  a  present  to  the  god,  appointing  ten  men  to  take  care 
they  were  held  with  the  same  ceremonies  as  in  Greece. °  Macrobius 
relates,  that  the  first  time  these  games  were  kept,  an  alarm  being 
given  by  the  enemy,  the  people  immediately  marched  out  against 
them,  and,  during  the  fight,  saw  a  cloud  of  arrows  discharged  from 
the  sky  on  the  adverse  troops,  so  as  to  put  them  to  a  very  disor- 
derly flight,  and  secure  the  victory  to  the  Romans. p  The  people  sat 
to  see  the  Circensian  plays,  all  crowned  with  laurel,  the  gates  were 
set  open,  and  the  day  kept  sacred  witb  all  manner  of  ceremonies. 
These  games  at  first  were  not  fixed,  but  kept  every  year  upon  what 
day  ihe  Pra:tor  thought  fit,  till,  about  the  year  of  the  city  545,  a 
law  passed  to  settle  them  for  ever  on  a  constant  day,  which  was  near 
vhc  Nones  of  July;   this  alteration  was  occasioned  by  a  grievous 


™  Valer.  Maxim,  lib.  2.  cap.  10. 

"  Gracv.  Praefat.  ud  1  Tom.  Thesaur.  A.  R, 

^'  Liv.  lib   XXV. 

"  Saturn,  lib,  L  cap.  17, 


t88 


THE   SACRED  GAMES 


d>  THE  ROM  A  NTs. 


289 


plague  then  laging  in  Rome,  which  tliey  thought  might,  in  some 
measure,  be  allayed  by  that  act  of  religion.'' 

LuDi  Capitolini,  instituted  to  the  honour  of  Jupiter  Capitolinus. 
upon  the  account  of  preserving  his  temple  from  the  Gauls.  A 
more  famous  sort  of  Capitolinc  games  were  brought  up  by  Uomi- 
tian,  to  be  held  every  five  years,  with  the  name  of  Jgoues  Cafiito- 
am,  in  imitation  of  the  Grecians.  In  these  the  professors  of  all  sorts 
had  a  public  contention,  and  the  victors  were  crowned  and  present- 
ed with  collars,  and  other  marks  of  honour. 

LuDi  HoMAM,  the  must  ancient  games,  instituted  at  the  first 
building  of  the  Circus  by  Tarquinius  Priscus.  Hence,  in  a  strict 
sense,  Liidi  Circenses  are  often  used  to  signify  the  same  solemnity 
They  were  designed  to  the  honour  of  the  three  great  deities,  Jupi- 
ter, Juno,  and  Minerva.  It  is  worth  observing,  that  though  they 
were  usually  called  Circtnseii,  yet  in  Livy  we  meet  with  the  Liidi  ui 
?ncini  Hccfiici,'  intimating  that  they  were  celebrated  with  new  sports. 
The  old  Fasti  make  them  to  be  kept  nine  days  together,  from  the 
day  before  the  Nonts,  to  the  day  before  the  Ides  of  September: 
in  which  too  we  find  another  sort  of  Ludi  Romani,  celebrated  five 
days  together,  within  two  days  after  these.  P.Manutius  thinks  thc^ 
lust  to  have  been  instituted  very  late,  not  till  after  the  prosecutioi: 
•>f  Vcrres  by  Cicero.* 

LuDi  CoN'sLALEs,  instituted  by  Romulus,  with  design  to  surprise 

iJic  Sabine  virgins;  the  account  of  which  is  thus  given  us  by  Plu- 

iurch  :  "  He  gave  out  as  if  he  had  found  an  altar  of  a  certain  god  hi'; 

under  the  ground  ;  the  god  they  called  Consus,  the  god  of  counsel . 

Uiis  is  properly  Neptune,  the  inventor  of  horse-riding ;  for  the  altar 

IS  kept  covered  in  the  great  Circus;  only  at  horse-races,  then  it  ap 

pears  to  public  view ;  and  some  say  it  was  not  without  reason  that  this 

god  had  his  altar  hid  under  ground,  because  all  counsels  ought  to  be 

secret  and  concealed.     Upon  discovery  of  this  altar,  Romulus,  bv 

proclamation,  appointed  a  day  for  a  splendid  sacrifice,  and  for  public 

games  and  shows  to  entertain  all  sorts  of  people,  and  many  flocked 

timber;  he  himself  sat  uppermost  among  his  nobles,  clad  in  purple 

Xow  the  sign  of  their  filling  on  was  to  be,  whenever  he  arose  and 

g:atbcred  up  his  robe,  and  threw  it  over  his  body :  his  men  stood  all 

ready  armed,  with  ihcir  eyes  intent  upon  him;  and  when  the  sign 

svas  given,  drawing  their  swords,  and  fnlling  on  with  a  great  shout, 

liore  away  the  daughters  of  the  Sabines,  they  themselves  flying, 

uithoiit  any  let  or  hindrance."  These  games  were  celebrated  vearlv 


T.iv  I'b  "-^ 


T    •!. 


'  !i4rtnut.  in  \  crrin. 


jii  the  twelfth  of  the  Kalends  of  September,  consisting  for  the  most 
part  of  horse-races,  and  encounters  in  the  Circus. 

Ludi  Compitalitii,  so  called  from  the  Comfiita^  or  cross-lanes, 
where  they  were  instituted  and  celebrated  by  the  rude  multitude 
that  was  got  together,  before  the  building  of  Rome.  They  seem  to 
have  been  laid  down  for  many  years,  till  Servius  Tullus  revived 
ihcm.  They  were  held  during  the  Comfiitalia^  or  feast  of  the  Lares^ 
who  presided  as  well  over  streets  as  houses.  Suetonius  tells  us, 
that  Augustus  ordered  the  Lares  to  be  crowned  twice  a  year,  at  the 
C'jmpAtaUtian  games,  with  spring  flowers.'  This  crowning  the 
household-gods,  and  oftcring  sacrifices  up  and  down  in  the  streets, 
made  the  greatest  part  of  the  solemnity  of  the  feast. 

Ludi  Augustales  and  Palatini,  both  instituted  to  the  honour  of 
Augustus,  after  he  had  been  enrolled  in  the  number  of  the  gods; 
;hc  former  by  the  common  consent  of  the  people,  and  the  other  by 
his  wife  Livia,  which  were  always  celebrated  in  the  palace."  Thev 
were  both  continued  by  the  succeeding  emperors. 

Ludi  S^culares,  the  most  remarkable  games  that  we  meet  with 
\\\  the  Roman  story.  The  common  opinion  makes  them  to  have 
!iac]  a  very  odd  original,  of  which  we  have  a  tedious  relation  in  Va- 
lerius Maximus,''  of  the  ancients,  and  Angelus  Politianus,w  of  the 
moderns.  Monsieur  Dacier,  in  his  excellent  remarks  on  the  secular 
paem  of  Horace,  passes  by  this  old  conceit  as  trivial  and  fabulous, 
and  assures  us,  that  we  need  go  no  farther  for  the  rise  of  the  custom, 
ihan  to  the  Sibylline  oracles,  for  which  the  Romans  had  so  great  an 
esteem  and  veneration. 

In  these  sacred  writings,  there  was  one  famous  prophecy  to  this 
effect:  that  if  the  Romans,  at  the  beginning  of  every  age,  should 
hold  solemn  games  in  the  Campus  Martius  to  the  honour  of  Pluto, 
Proserpine,  Juno,  Apollo,  Diana,  Ceres  and  the  Parcx^  or  three 
fatal  sisters,  their  city  should  ever  flourish,  and  all  nations  be  sub- 
jected to  their  dominion.  They  were  very  ready  to  obey  the  oracle, 
aiid,  in  all  the  ceremonies  used  on  that  occasion,  conformed  them- 
selves to  its  directions.  The  whole  manner  of  the  solemnity  was  as 
iuilows :  In  the  first  place,  the  heralds  received  orders  to  make  an 
invitation  of  the  whole  world  to  come  to  a  feast  "johich  they  had  never 
seen  already^  and  should  never  see  again.  Some  few  days  before 
the  beginning  of  the  games,  the  Quindecimviriy  taking  their  seats  in 
the  capitol,  and  in  the  Palatine  temple,  distributed  among  the  people 
purifying  compositions,  as  flambeaux,  brimstone,  and  sulphur. 
Irom  hence  the  people  passed  on  to  Diana's  temple  on  the  Aventine 

'  Aug.  cap.  52.  ^  Lib.  2.  cap.  4. 

'  Dio.  lib.  ^6.     Sueton.  CaVig.  56.  '^  Miscellan.  cup.  58. 


290 


•rrii:  sacred  games,  he 


or  THE   ROMANS. 


291 


#4 


mounrain,  carrying  wheat,  barley,  and  beans,  as  an  ofTerinj^;  aur 
after  this  they  spent  whole  nights  in  devotion  to  the  destinies.     \ 
lenp;th,  when  the  time  of  the  games  was  actually  come,  which  coi 
tinned  three  days  and   three  nights,   the  people  assemljled  in  il, 
Canipus  Martins,  and  sacrificed  to  Jtipiter,  Jnno,  Apollo,  Latoi, 
Diana,  the  Parcx,  Ceres,  Phito,  and  Proserpine.     On  the  first  nii'i 
of  the  feast,  the  emperor,  accompanied  by  the  Quindecimviri  con' 
nianded  three  altars  to  be  raised  on  the  bank  of  the  Tiber,  nhich 
they  sprinkled  with  the  blood  of  three  lambs,  and  then  proceeded  to 
Ijurn  the  offerings  and   the  victims.      After  this  they  marked  out 
space  which  served  for  a  Theatre,  being  illuminated  by  an  innume- 
rable multitude  of  flambeaux  and  fires ;  here  they  sung  some  ccrtaii 
hymns  composed  on  this  occasion,  and  celebrated  all  kinds  of  sport- 
On  the  day  after,  when  they  had  been  at  the  capitol  to  ofTer  thevi' 
tims,  they  returned  to  the  Cam])us  Martius,  and  held  sports  to  tin 
honour  of  Apollo  and  Diana.      These  lasted  till  the  next  day,  wlui 
ihc  noble  matrons,  at  the  hour  appointed  by  the  oracle,  went  to  ih' 
capitol   to  sing  hymns  to  Jupiter.     On  the  tliird  <lay,  which  con 
eluded  the  feast,  twenty-seven  young  boys,  and  as  many  girls,  sum- 
in  the  temple  of  Palatine  Apollo,  hymns  and  verses  in  Greek  aiK 
Latin,  to  recommend  the  city  to  the  protection  of  those  deities  whon 
they  designed  particularly  to  honour  by  these  sacrifices. 

The  famous  secular  poem  of  Horace  was  composed  for  this  by. 
day,  in  the  secular  game  held  by  Augustus.     Dacicr  has  given  h: 
judgment  on  this  poem,  as  the  master-piece  of  J  lorace ;  and  believe^ 
that  all  antiquity  cannot  furnish  us  with  any  thing  more  hapnilv 
complete. 

There  has  been  much  controversy,  whether  these  games  were 
celebrated  every  hundred,  or  every  hundred  and  ten  years.  Toi 
die  former  opinion,  ('ensorinus'^  alleges  the  testimony  of  V^aleiiuv 
Antias,  Varro,  and  Livy  ;  and  this  was  certainly  the  space  of  timt 
which  the  Romans  called  Seculuin^  or  an  age.  For  the  latter  he 
produceth  the  authority  of  the  registers,  or  commentaries  of  the 
Qui?i(ifcimviriy  and  the  edicts  of  Augustus,  besides  the  plain  evi 
dence  of  Horace  in  his  secular  poem,  J  1  : 

Certus  iindenos  dtdta  per  annos,  S;c. 
This  last  space  is  expressly  enjoined  by  the  Sibylline  oracle  itself, 
the  verses  of  which  relating  to  this  purpose,  are  transcribed  b* 
/osimus  in  the  second  book  of  his  history: 


Vet  according  to  the  ancient  accounts  we  have  of  their  celebra- 
■  on  in  the  several  ages,  neither  of  these  periods  are  much  re- 
-arflcd. 

The  first  were  held  A.  U.  C.  2i5,  or  293. 

I'hc  second  A.  r>30,  or  408. 

'J'he  third,  A.  518. 

i  he  fourth  either  A.  f>('>:)^  or  ^'.'»S,  or  62.S 

The  fifth  by  Augustus,  A.  TZh. 

Tiie  sixth  by  Claudius,  A.  800. 

The  seventh  by  Domitian,  A.  811. 

The  eighth  by  Sevcrus,  A.  9  57. 

The  ninth  by  Philip,  A.  1000. 

The  tenth  by  Honorius,  A.  1  1;)7. 

Tlie  disorder,  without  question,  was  owing  to  tlie  ambition  oi  i;.- 
eir.|jcrors,  who  were  extremely  desirous  to  have  the  honour  of  celc- 
Lrating  these  games  in  their  reign  ;  and  therefore,  upon  the  slightest 
j'.retcnce,  many  times  made  them  return  before  their  ordinary  course. 
Thus  Claudius  pretended  that  Augustus  had  held  the  games  before 
heir  due  time,  that  he  might  have  the  least  excuse  to  keep  them 
vlthin  sixty-four  years  afterwards.  On  which  account,  Suetonius 
:tu-i  us,  that  the  people  scoffed  his  criers,  when  they  went  about 
•proclaiming  games  that  nobody  had  ever  seen,  nor  would  see  again; 
Iiereas  there  v/cre  not  only  many  persons  alive  who  remembered 
';ie  games  of  Augustus,  but  several  players  who  had  acted  in  those 
;^^r;nies  were  now  again  brought  on  the  stage  by  Claudius.^ 

What  part  of  the  year  the  secular  games  was  celebrated  in,  is 
nccrtain  ;  probably,  in  the  times  of  the  commonwealth,  on  the  days 
f  the  nativity  of  the  city,  i.  e.  the  9.  10.  11.  A'a/   Mail;  but  under 
tiic  emperors,  on  the  day  when  they  came  to  their  power.^ 

\\  c  may  conclude  our  inquiry  into  this  celebrated  subject,  with 
'  ••0  excellent  remarks  of  the  French  critic.  The  first  is,  that  in  the 
•lumber  three,  so  much  regarded  in  these  games,  they  had  probablv 
^n  allusion  to  the  tripliciiy  of  Phoebus,  of  Diana,  and  of  the  desti» 
i.ics. 

The  other  observation,  which  he  obliges  us  with,  is,  that  thev 
nought  the  girls  which  had  the  honour  to  bear  a  part  in  singing 
ae  secular  poem,  should  be  the  soonest  married.  This  supersti- 
on  they  borrow.ed  from  the  theology  of  the  Grecians,  Vvho  imagined 
-at  the  children  who  did  not  sing  and  dance  at  the  coming  of 
'vpollo  should  never  be  married,  and  should  certainly-  die  vouno 
'  0  this  purpose  Callimachus  in  his  hymn  to  Apollo : 


it 


»  Dq  Die  Nutah,  cap.  ir, 


Sueton.  Claud.  CI 


'  Mr.  Walker  on  Coins,  p.  168. 


0^  ^  0m0 


THi:  SACRED  GAMES,  biC 


OF  THE  ROMANS. 


:^9j 


w 


ht  Tt?[£civ  fA.tXXyci  yuf/,o}t,  rroXir.v  re  xf^fTc-^.-:.. 

And  Horace,  encouraging  ihc  chorus  of  girls  to  do  tlien-  best  i; 
singing  ilic  secular  poem,  tells  them  how  proud  ihcy  would  be  of  j-. 
Avhcn  they  Mere  well  married; 

j\'uj>ta  Jam  dicef: :  E^o  iliis  amiaim 
!^Aviil(}  fvatua  refereitte  luccs^ 
litiUUdi  carmeiij  (lucihs  modorum 

I'atis  Itoniti.  Lib.  iv.  Od.  6. 

All  those  games,  of  what  sort  soever,  had  the  connnon  name  o: 
'votivi,  which  were  the  cflect  of  any  vow  n^ade  by  the  magisiratc^; 
or  generals,  when  they  set  forward  on  any  expedition,  to  be  per 
fo  -med  in  case  they  returned  successful.     These  were  sometime 
occasioned  by  advice  of  the  Sibylline  oracles,  or  of  the  soothsayers 
and  many  times  proceeded  purely  from  a  principle  of  devotion  and 
piety  in  the  generals.     Such  particularlv  were  the  JmcH  Mofrni, 
often  mentioned  in  historians,  especially  by  Livy.     Thus  he  inform; 
us,  that  in  the  year  of  the  city  536,  Fabius  Maximus  the  dictator, 
to  appease  the  anger  of  the  gods,  and  to  obtain  success  against  tin 
Carthaginian  power,  upon  the  direction  of  the  Sibylline  oracles, 
vowed  the  great  games  to  Jupiter,  with  a  prodigious  sum  to  be  ex- 
pended at  them  ;  besides  three  hundred  oxen  to  be  sacrificed  to 
Jupilc  r,  and  several  others  to  the  rest  of  the  deities.*     M.  Acilius 
the  consul  did  the  same  in  the  war  against  Antiochus.''     And  we 
have  some  examples  of  these  games  being  made  (jiiinquenjual^  o 
to  return  every  f.vc  yeais.^     They  were  celebrated  with  Circensia^; 
sports  four  days  together.' 

To  this  hrad  we  may  icfcr  the 

jMdi  Vicforia:  mentioned  by  Veil.  Paterculus,-^  and  Asconiu' 
They  were  instituted  by  Sylla  upon  his  concluding  the  civil  wai 
It  seems  i)robable,  that  there  were  many  other  games  with  the  samt 
title,  celebrated  on  account  of  some  remarkable  success,  by  scvcra 
of  the  emperors. 

The  Litdi  Quirnjninnalcfi^  instituted  by  Augustu<^.  Cccsar  after lii^ 
victory  against  Antony;  which  resolving  to  deliver  famous  lo  sur 
cceding  ages,  he  built  the  city  Nicopolis,  near  Ariium,the  place o! 
battle,  on  purpose  to  hold  these  games;  whence  they  are  often 
railed  L7idi  Actiatl.  They  consisted  of  bhows  of  gladiators,  wrest 
Icrs,  and  other  exercises,  and  were  kept  as  well  at  Rome  as  at  Ni- 
copolis.    The  proper  curators  of  theni  were  the  four  colleges  c' 


jricsts,  the  Pontifices,   the  Augurs,  the  Septemviri  and  Quindc- 

iniviri. 
Virgiljin  allusion  to  this  custom,  when  he  brings  his  hero  to  the 

Momontory  of  Aclium,  makes  him  hold  soknm  games,  with  ihelu'i 
"iitions  and  sacrifices  used  on  that  occasion  by  the  Romans  : 

Lu.s'tr(nKurque  Jovif  vutisque  iiicendimuH  urns 

JlcUaque  Jliaci^  celebvnmus  Uttova  Ludis.  iEv.  3.  279. 

Nero,  after  the  manner  of  the  Grecians,  instituted  Quincjurmua: 
;.inies,  at  which  the  most  celebrated  masters  of  music,  horse- racing, 
\\ resiling.  Sec.  disputed  for  the  prize. ^ 

The  same  exercises  were  performed  in  the  QuinquciDiiul  gamcK 

!  Domitian,  dedicated  to  Jupiter  C'apitolinus,  together  with  the 

.onteniions  of  orators  and  poets,''  at  which  the  famous  Statins  had 

,,ncc  the  ill  fortune  to  lose  the  prize;  as  he  coniplains  several  limes 

.1  his  miscellany  poems. 

Ludi  Decennalea^  or  games  to  return  every  tenth  year,  were  insti 
lutcd  by  Augustus,  with  this  political  design,  to  secure  the  whole 
command  to  himself,  without  incurring  the  envy  or  jealousy  of  the 
people.  For  every  tenth  year  proclaiming  solemn  sports,  and  so  ga- 
thering together  a  numerous  company  of  spectators,  he  there  made 
piolVer  of  resigning  his  imperial  office  to  the  people,  though  he  im- 
ijicdiately  resumed  it,  as  if  continued  to  him  by  the  common  consent 
of  the  nation.'  Hence  a  custom  was  derived  for  the  succeeding  cm- 
ptrors,  every  tenth  year  of  their  reign,  to  keep  a  magnificent  feast, 
"uh  the  celebration  of  all  sorts  of  public  sports  and  exercises.^ 

T)ie  Liidi  Triuuijiliales  were  such  games  as  made  a  part  of  the 
.liumphal  solemnity. 

Ludi  jYatalidu  instituted  by  every  particular  emperor  to  comme- 
'uuratc  his  own  birth  day. 

Ludi  Juvenaies,  instituted  by  Nero  at  the  shaving  of  his  beard,  and 

It  first  privately  celebrated  in  his  palace  or  gardens ;  but  they  soon 

occame  public,    and  were  kept  m  great  state  and  magnificence. 

'lence  the  games  held  by  tlie  following  emperors  in  the  palace, 

vcarly  on  the  first  of  January,  took  the  nanie  of  Juvenalia.^ 

Cicero  speaks  of  the  Ludi  Juventutis,  instituted  by  Salinator  in 
ihc  Scnensian,  for  the  health  and  safety  of  the  youth,  a  plague 
•  !icn  reigning  in  the  city.' 

The  J.udi  Misceliif  which  Suetonius  makes  Caligula  to  have  in- 
-lituted  at  Lyons  in  France,  seem  to  have  been  a  miscellany  of 


•''  I.jv.  lih.  C2. 

^  Idem,  lib.  S6. 

'  Liv.  lib.  :?.  ct  Wh   "^ 


•^  Ibid.  e  T/ib.  eap. 

'  In  Verrln.  2. 


p  Siicton.  Ner,  12. 
'  Idem,  Domit.  4. 
Die,  lib.  35. 


i  Ibid. 

^  Sueton.  Ner.  11.  Casaubon.  ad  Ipc 

'  In  I3ruto 


:t.  * 


:9 


.f 


234. 


rilL   FUNERAL  GAMLs 


.ports  conMsiing  of  several  cxcrci.cs  joined  together  in  a  new  an, 
unusual  manner.'"  * 

The  LuDi   FtNEBRBS,  assigned  for  one  sptxics  of  the  nom-,. 
pubhc  sanies,  as  to  their  original  anci  manner,  have  been  ahca,' 
descnbcd  in  the  chapter  of  the  Ghidiators.  It  may  be  proncr  to  H 
serve  farther,  that  Tertullian,  in  his  particular  tract  De  S/,caacul! 
as  he  derives   the  custon.  of  the  !,^ladiu,orian  combats  from  tl,! 
funeral  rites,  so  he  takes  notice,  that  the  word  mauu,,  applied  o,: 
ginally  to  these  shows,  is  no  more  than  cfficium,  a  kind  office  to  tl,', 
dead.     Wc  must  remember,  that  though  the  shows  of  Ciladiatoi^ 
>vhich   took   then-  rise  from   hence,  were  afterwards  exhibited  «n 
many  other  occasions,  yet  the  primitive  custom  of  presentimc  the, 
at  the  funerals  of  great  men,  all  along  prevailed  in  the  ci.v  and  Ko 
nian  provinces;   nor  was  it  confinetl  only  to  persons  of  qualitv,  b„ 
almost  every  rich  man  was  honoured  with   this  solemnity  after  hi- 
death  ;  and  tins  they  very  commonly  provided  for  in  their  wills,  dc 
finmg  tiie  number  of  Gladiators  who  should  be  hired  to  engage-  i, 
somuch  that  when  any  wealthy  person  deceased,  the  people  used  to 
claim  a  show  of  Gladiators,  as  their  due  by  long  custom.   Suetonius 
to  this  purpose  tells  us  of  a  funeral,  in  which  the  common  people 
extorted  money  by  force  from  the  deceased  person's  heirs,  to  b. 
expended  on  this  account." 

Julius  Caesar  brought  up  a  new  custom  of  allowing  this  honou, 
to  the  women,  when  he  obliged  the  people  with  a  feast  and  a  pul, 
lie  show  in  memory  of  his  daughter." 

It  is  very  memorable,  that  though  the  cxhibiters  of  these  show, 
were  private  persons,  yet,  during  the  time  of  the  celebration,  ihev 
were  considered  as  of  the  highest  rank  and  quality,  having  the  ho' 
nour  to  wear  x.ho /,ratex,a,  and  to  be  waited  on  bv  the  lictors  and 
beadles,  who  were  necessary  to  keep  the  people  in  order,  and  toa> 
sist  the  designacores,  or  marshullers  of  the  procession.P 

"  Sueton.  C.il.  20.  Torrent,  ad  ioc. 

»  Suet.  Tit.  37.  o  n         T  1  oc 

'  Kirchman.  de  Kuner.  Rom.  lib.  4.  cap.  8. 


c 
•  •  • 


•  t  • 


•   1  '  « 


af 


/-  'f  • 


•       t     •  • 


t    ( 


i!&6 


I       » 
'III 

I     1 


•    «  • 
■  >*   • 

>  9    •       < 


*.    !• 


3fl,'> 


'  •  •       »         s 

^  l»    >  •  >  >       ,- 
»  »  »    >  •    . 


1 


^TdDlLATPiW. 


IPiiILJL.ATrit 


i;j,;;y^.'Mi:i,i..':i..tu:].i  ..r::,.m:..  .■  ■.  :,:.i 


/?./run/fA<I/  Se*. 


hM,^h^  hy  H,riy„.,„    Aff.U^,r,/    /.'ff7,^r,u,/S7  iy^X*. 


/U-ltrAf,/  lv//i<htuiniicH.it^,ir,l  1*1  (hfsnul  S}M2J. 


•    •  t 


OF  THE  ROMANS, 


295 


CHAPTER  Vlli. 


Ol-   THE  ROMAN  HABir. 


THE  Koman  habit  has  given  as  much  trouble  to  the  critics,  a.s 
any  other  part  of  antiquity  ;  and  though  the  most  learned  men  have 
been  so  kind  as  to  leave  us  their  thoughts  on  this  subject,  yet  the 
matter  is  not  fully  explained,  and  the  controversies  about  it  admit 
of  no  decision.  Hov/ever,  without  inquiring  into  the  several  fashions 
,f  the  Romans,  or  defining  the  exact  time  when  they  first  changed 
licir  leathern  jerkins,  or  primitive  hides  of  wild  beasts,  for  the  more 
decent  and  graceful  attires,  it  will  be  suHicicnt  to  the  present  design, 
•j  observe  the  several  sorts  of  garments  in  use  with  both  sexes,  and 
!o  give  the  best  distinction  of  them  that  can  be  found  out  at  this 
distance. 

The  two  common  and  celebrated  garments  of  the  Romans  were 
■iic  toi^a^  and  tunica. 

The  toga^  or  gown,  seems  to  have  been  of  a  semi-circular  form, 
viihout  sleeves,  different  in  largeness,  according  to  the  wealth  or 
poverty  of  the  wearer,  and  used  only  upon  occasion  of  appearing  in 
i)!il)lic;  whence  it  is  often  called  vestisforensis.'^ 

The  colour  of  the  gown  is  generally  believed  to  have  been  white^ 
i'he  common  objections  against  this  opinion  are,  how  it  could  then 
oc  distinguished  from  the  toga  Candida^  used  by  competitors  for 
ofPiCes  ?  Or  how  comes  it  to  pass  that  we  read  particularly  of  their 
wearing  white  gowns  on  holydays  and  public  festivals;  as  in  Horace, 

Ille  repotiUi  nataks^  aUosque  dicrum 
FestQSt  albatiis  cdebret  ;^ 

•1  their  ordinary  gown  were  of  the  same  colour .''  But  both  these 
(ruples  are  easily  solved;  for  between  the  toga  alba  and  Candida^ 
AC  may  apprehend  this  dift'ercnce,  that  the  former  was  the  natural 
'  olour  of  the  wool,  and  the  other  an  artificial  white,  which  appeared 
'^vith  a  greater  advantage  of  lustre  :  and  therefore  Polybius  chooseth 
ather  to  call  the  candidate's  gown  ^.x^itt^x,  than  Afyxjj,  not  of  a  bare 
^vhite,  but  a  bright  shining  colour;  for  this  purpose  they  made  use 
T  a  fine  kind  of  chalk,  whence  Pcrsius  took  the  hint  o^  crctata  am- 
udo*  As  to  the  holydays,  or  solemn  festivals,  on  which  we  find  the 


Ferrar.  de  Re  Vestiar.  lib.  I.  cap,  28. 
Lib.  C.  Sat.  ?.  60. 


s  Sat,  5.  ver.  177 


29C) 


J  If  r.  ff  AP.ir 


OF  THE   ROMANS. 


297 


Romans  always  atiiied  in  while,  it  is  ^ca^;onal)lc  lo  believe  Uiut  ajj 
,  oMs  of  any  fashion  cnnc;trintly  put  on  now  t^owns,  nhich  were  oi 
tlie  puiest  while,  on  thcst  o,,..asions,  and  those  of  meaner  condition 
mi-ht  perhaps  chalk  over  tlicir  old  gowns,  whicli  were  now  ^n-owr. 
rusty,  and  had  almosi  lost  tlieir  colour.' 

The  dispute  tjetween  Manutius  and  Sii^onlus,  whether  the  Roman 
gown  was  tied  about  with  a  girdle  or  not,  is  commonly  decided  ir, 
favour  of  Manutius  ;  yet  it  must  be  acknowledged  that  the  best  au- 
thors allow  some  kind  of  cincture  to  the  gown  ;  but  then  it  must  be 
understood  to  be  performed  only  by  the  help  of  the  gown  itself  oi 
by  that  part  of  it,  which,  coming  under  the  right  arm,  Avas  drawn 
over  to  the  left  shoulder,  and  so,  covering  the  umbo  or  knot  of  plaiiv 
•which  rested  there,  kept  the  gown  close  together.  This  lappet  Quin 
tilian  calls  the  Belt,  in  his  advice  to  the  orators  about  this  matter; 
"  llic  qui  sul>  huinero  rlrvMo  ad  sinistrum  oblique  ducitiir,  vchi' 
balteus,  ncc  strangulel,  .ic.  iluat."" 

The  bell  being  loosed,  and  tlic  left  arm  drawn  in,  the  gown  flowcf 
out,  and  the   Sifnts  or  main  lappet  hung  about  the  wearer's  feet 
this  was  particularly  observed  in  Csesar,  who  commonly  let  his  gown 
hung  dragging  after  him,  whence  Sylla  used  to  advise  the  noblrmcr 
*  lit  puerum  male  prxcinctum  cavcrcnt.'"' 

The  accurate  Ferrarius  is  certainly  in  a  mistake  as  to  this  pcum . 
■ui ,  maintaining  tliat  the  gown  had  no  kind  of  cinctuH  but  what  they 
called  (iabinuti,\\c  will  have  this  meant  only  of  the  tunica  ;  but  th<-. 
plain  words  of  Macrnbius  make  such  a  supposition  impossible;  and 
Luciniam  irahcrc  expressly  points  out  ihe  gown;  for  the  tunic,  be- 
ing only  a  short  vest,  cannot  by  any  means  be  conceived  to  have  >• 
lappet  dragging  on  the  ground. "' 

The  same  fault  whi(  h  Sylla  objected  to  Cx^sar,  was  commonly 
observed  in  M.xcenas,  and  is  a  mark  of  that  eneminatc  softness, 
which  makes  an  unhappy  part  of  his  character  in  history. 

The  learned  Gracvius  observes,  that  the  word  /invchiifi  was  pr6- 
per  lo  the  gown,  because  the  lappet  did  not  close  about  the  whole 
i^own,  bui  only  the  fore-part  of  it." 

The  ductus  Gahinus  is  most  happily  described  by  Ferrarius  : 
^*  Cinctus  Ciabinus  non  aliud  quam  cum  togae  lacinia,  l:cvo  brarhio 
>>ubducta  in  tergum,  ila  rcjiciebatur,  ul  contracta  retrahcretur 
ad  pectus,  alque  ita  in  noduni  necteretur  ;  qui  nodus  sivc  cinctus 
tot^ani  contrahebat,  brcvioremque  et  strictiorcm  reddidit  "     -  TIm 


•  Sncton.  Jul.  caj).  45.     Macr^b. 
'"  <ira;vius  ad  Suetoii.  Jul.  45. 
]>e  IJc  Vcstiur.  lib.  1   cap.  14 


'  Institut.  lib.  11.  cap. 
>.iLu:iial.  lib'.  2.  cap.  o 
>  IbUl. 


t .  ..  "v  Uabinus  was  nothing  else  but  when  the  lappet  of  the  gown, 
which  used  to  be  brought  up  to  the  left  shoulder,  being  drawn 
thence,  was  cast  off  in  such  a  manner  upon  the  back,  as  to  come- 
round  short  to  the  breast,  and  there  fasten  in  a  knot ;  which  knot  or 
cincture  tucked  up  the  gow^n,  and  made  it  shorter  and  straiter.'" 
This  cinctufi  was  proper  only  to  the  consuls  or  generals  upon  some 
txiraordinary  occasions,  as  the  denouncing  war,  burninp-  the  spoils 
of  the  enemy,  devoting  themselves  to  death  for  the  safety  of  their 
.umy,  and  the  like;  it  was  borrowed  from  the  inhabitants  of  Gabii, 
a  city  of  Campania,  who,  at  the  time  of  a  public  sacrifice,  happen- 
ing to  be  set  upon  suddenly  by  their  enemies,  were  obliged,  through 
haste,  to  gather  up  their  gowns  in  this  manner,  and  so  march  ou^ 
to  oppose  them.^ 

In  the  ordinary  wear,  the  upper  part  of  the  gown  used  to  lie  ovei 
the  right  shoulder  ;  yet  upon  occasion  it  was  an  easy  matter  to  draw 
i)ack  that  part  again,  and  make  it  cover  the  head ;  and  learned  men 
arc  of  opinion  that  the  Uomans,  while  they  continued  in  the  city, 
made  use  of  this  kind  of  covering  only  for  the  head,  never  appearing 
in  any  kind  of  caps  or  hats,  unless  they  were  on  a  journey  out  of 
town.  Thus  Plutarch  informs  us  of  the  deference  paid  to  the  great 
men  as  they  passed  the  streets:  'Vuntxloi  raiv  uvfi^uTrm  rolq  ot^ioiq  Ttf^r,g 
uTTcciiaiv'leq,  kuv  rvx,UTiv  iTri  tk^  xf^osA/jj  to  tiauTtov  e^ov'jsg,  a'?roKxXvrr''lovloct . 
riic  Nnmanf},  when  tlwij  juctt  any  Jicrson  who  deserves  a  Jiarticular 
■calicct^  if  they  chance  to  have  their  goivn  on  their  heacL  fircsentln 
uncover.  And  the  same  author  reckoning  up  the  marks  of  honour 
>vhich  Sylla  showed  Pompey,  adds,  kcci  rr,<i  K:^ciXr,(i  aT^jyovrc?  to  4i^cirto\\ 
ud  /iuliinif  off  hits  i^ovju  from  his  head. 

The  several  sorts  of  the  Roman  gowns  were  the  To^^a  Pra^texta. 
the  Pulla^  the  Sordida^  and  the  Picta^  Pur/un^ea,  Pahnata,  kc.  oi 
the  Trabea. 

Every  one  knows  that  the  gown  was  the  distinguishing  mark  of 
the  Romans  from  the  Greeks,  who  wore  the  Pallium^  cr  cloak,  as 
their  common  garment,  whence  Togatus  and  Palliatus  are  often 
used  for  Roman  and  Grecian  :  as  also  that  the  gown  was  the  proper 
badge  of  peace,  being  generally  laid  aside  upon  engaging  in  any  mar 
tial  design ;  yet  it  appears  from  several  passages  of  I.ivy  and  Phi 
t^ich,  thai  it  was  sometimes  worn  in  the  camp ;  if  so,  perhaps  the 
I'.ijuiir^  and  Ccnturionn  had  this  peculiar  privilege,  and  that  onlv 
\vhcn  they  lay  in  the  camp  without  any  thoughts  of  sudden  action. 
:is  Manutius  learnedly  conjectures. a 

The    Toga  Prcstexta  had  a  border  of  purple  round   the  ed^-es. 

'-  Ser\liis  ad  Virgil  iEn   7.  v.  61?      »  Dc  Qu?esilis  per  Kj/.^t.  iiii.  I .  Ep    \ 


^98 


IHL   HABll 


cr  THE  ROMANS. 


29'.^ 


viicncc  it  took  its  name,  and  in  allusion  to  which,  the  Grecian  wn 

lers  call  it  vi^{'ro^(pv^<.v.  It  seems  originally  to  have  been  appropriatec 

o  il»c  magistrates  and  some  of  the  priests,  when  at  first  introduced 

ly  Tullus  Plostilius.     How  it  came  to  be  bestowed  on  the  yountc 

men,  is  difierenlly  related.    Some  fancy  that  Tarquinius  Priscus,  iu 

a  triumph  for  a  vi(  tory  against  the  Sabincs,  first  honoured  his  own 

son  with  the  Pratexta  and  the  Bulla  aurea^  as  rewards  for  his  valour 

for  killini^onc  of  his  enemirswith  his  own  hands;  for  as  the  former 

was  the  robe  of  the  magistrates,  so  the   Bulla  aurea  was  till  then 

used  only  by  generals  in  their  triumphal  procession,  being  a  sort  ot 

!;ollow  golden  ball  hanging  about  their  necks,  in  which  was  inclosed 

some  secret  amul''  '"'  preservative  against  envy.     Others,  without 

.•egarding  this  firsi  :>t()ry,  tell  us,  that  the  same  Tarquin,  amonp 

other  wise  constitutions,  look  particular  care  in  assigning  the  propc: 

habit  to  the  boys;  and  accordingly  ordained  that  the  sons  of  noble 

men  should  make  use  of  the  Pra:texta  and  the  Bulla  aurca^  providca 

iheir  father  had  borne  any  curule  oflice  ;  and  that  the  rest  should 

wear  the  Prxtcxta  only,  as  low  as  the  sons  of  those  who  had  served 

on  horseback  in  the  army  the  full  time  that  the  law  required.    A 

third  party  refer  the  original  of  this  custom  to  Uomulus  himself,  a- 

The  conscfpicnce  of  a  promise  made  to  the  Sabine  virgins,  that  he 

would  bestow  a  very  considerable  mark  of  honour  on  the  first  chile 

that  was  born  to  any  of  them  by  a  Roman  father.  Many  believe  that 

the  reason  of  giving  them  the  Bulla  and  the  Pratexta  was,  that  the 

former,  being  shaped  like  a  heart,  might  as  often  as  they  looked  oii 

it,  be  no  inconsiderable  incitement  to  courage  ;  and  that  the  purple 

of  the  gown  might  remind  them  of  the  modesty  which  became  then. 

at  that  age.^ 

liut  on  what  account  soever  this  institution  took  its  rise,  it  was 

constantly  observed  by  all  the  sons  of  the  ///^'d-y^i^/ or  frecborn.  The 

iJbcrtini  too  in  some  time  ol)tained  the  same  privilege,  only,  instead 

of  the  golden  Buila^  they  wore  a  leathern  one;  as  Juvenal  intimates 

Sat.  5.  164  : 

■  Eiiiiscion puero  si  contigit  aurum^ 


Vel  JioduH  tantuni  ct  signum  de  paupere  loro. 

li  i^  Luiinnuul)  believed  that  the  boys  changed  this  gown  at  the 
;igeof  1 4  years  for  the  Toga  Virilis  ;  but  Monsieur  Dacier  makes  this 
a  great  mistake  ;  for,  till  they  were  K>  years  old,  he  says,  they  wore 
a  sort  of  vest  with  sleeves,  which  they  called  Jlicata  Chlamys^  and 
then  left  olf  that  to  put  on  the  Pr.£tcxta^  which  they  did  not  change 
till  they  had  reached  the  age  of  puberty,  or  the  17th  ycar.^ 


it  is  a  very  pertinent  remark,  that  this  Prate xta  was  not  only  a 
:()kcn  of  the  youth  and  quality  of  the  wearer,  but  besides  this  had 
he  repute  of  a  sacred  habit;  and  therefore  when  they  assigned  i' 
;or  the  use  of  the  boys,  they  had  this  especial  consideration,  that  it 
nip:ht  be  a  kind  of  guard  or  defence  to  them  against  the  injuries  to 
nhich  that  age  was  exposed. <<  Thus  the  poor  boy  in  Horace  crie««; 
Hit  to  the  witch  Canidia  that  was  tormenting  him, 
Per  hoc  inane  purpinw  dccus  precor.     Epod.  5. 

And  Persiuscallsitcw.sYos/H//7?z/r«in  his  fifth  Satire.  iJut  Quiu- 
'ilian  most  expressly,  "  Ego  vobis  allego  etiam  illud  sacrum  pra: 
icxtarum,  quo  sacerdotes  velantur,  quo  Magistratus,  quo  infirmi 
atem  pueritiae  sacram  facimus  ac  venerabilem.'*^  "  I  alleo-e  too 
he  sacred  habit  of  the  Pratexta^  the  robe  of  the  magistrates,  and 
hat  by  which  we  derive  an  holy  reverence  and  veneration  to  the 
helpless  condition  of  childhood." 

We  find  farther,  that  the  citizens'  daughters  were  allowed  a  son 
•jf  Prxtexta^  which  they  wore  till  the  day  of  marriage.  Thus  C:iccro 
igainst  Verrcs,  Erifiies  pufiilU  toiram  firatextam.  And  Propcrtius, 
Mox  ubi  jam  faribus  cessit  firatexta  maritis.  The  Pra:torii  and 
Consulares  too,  (if  not  all  the  senators),  at  the  Ludi  Romani  made 
ise  of  the  PriZtexta.*'  And  the  matrons  on  the  Cafirotiuc  .Yotk  s 
•eleorated  the  festival  in  this  sort  of  gown. ^ 

The  Toga  fnira  was  the  ordinary  garment  of  private  persons  when 
'hey  appeared  abroad,  so  called  because  it  had  not  the  least  additior. 
of  purple  to  the  white;  we  meet  with  the  same  gown  under  the  name 
of  Virilis  and  iJbcra  :  It  was  called  Toga  virilis^  or  the  manly 
;o\vn,  because  when  the  youths  came  to  man's  estate,  or  at  the 
^ige  of  17  years,  they  changed  the  Prntexta  for  this  habit,  as  was 
hefore  observed ;  on  which  occasion  the  friends  of  the  youngstet 
:arried  him  into  the  Forum  (or  sometimes  into  the  capitol)  and  at 
ired  him  in  the  new  gown  with  abundance  of  ceremony ;  this  they 
ailed  dies  tirociniiy  the  day  on  which  he  commenced  a  7Vro,  in  rela- 
•on  to  the  army,  where  he  was  now  capacitated  to  serve. 

It  had  the  name  of  Toga  libera^  because  at  this  time  the  young 
nfien  entered  on  a  state  of  freedom,  and  were  delivered  from  the 
power  of  their  tutors  and  instructors.  Thus  the  young  gentleman 
ntimates  in  Persius: 

Cum  primujn  pavido  custos  mi  hi  purpura  cessit, 

Bullaqiie  succinctis  laHbus  donata  pependit ; 

Cum  blandi  comiteSf  totaque  impune  suburra 

Permisit  sparsisse  oculos  jam  candidus  umbo.     Sat.  5.  30. 


^  Macrob.  Saturnal.  lib,  1.  cup.  6. 


Dacier  on  Horace,  lib.  5.  Ode  "»■ 


'  Dacier,  on  Horace,  lib.  5.  Od.  5. 
In  Declamat. 


f  Cicero,  Philip.  2. 

I  Varro  de  Ling.  Lat.  lib.  5. 


500 


liiK  HABIT 


Wlien  fus-t  my  clilldlsli  robe  resisriccl  its  cliarge 
And  loft  nic  unconfined  to  live  ut  large; 
When  now  my  golden  Uullu  (hung*  on  high 
To  household  gods)  declared  me  past  a  boy, 
And  my  white  j)laits  proclaim'd  my  liberty; 
When  with  mv  wild  companions  I  could  roll 
Vrom  stn-ot  lo  street,  and  sin  without  control. 


iinrnEN. 


But,  iur  all  tliis  liljcriy,  tiicy  had  one  remarkable  restraint,  bcii.* 
oblii^cd  lor  the  first  whole  year  to  keep  their  arms  within  their  gow 
as  an  ari^unicnt  of  n\ot!esty.     This  Cicero  observes,  A'obia  (juid< 
jlim  innnis  crat  unua  iid  cohihcndiim  brachiutn  toga  constitiitis.h 

The  Tnga  /ml la  and  fiordida  arc  very  commonly  confounded,  \\ 

upon  a  strict  enquiry,  it  will  appear  that  the  first  sort  was  proper 

persons  in  mourning,  beini;  made  of  black  cloth,  whence  the  pc 

sons  were  called  utrati.     The    Toga  sordida  was  black,  as  well  as 

the  other,  but  from  a  different  cause,  having  grown  so  by  the  Ion 

wearing  and  sullying  of  it ;  and  this  (as  has  been  already  obscrvci' 

was  worn  by  the  prisoners  at  their  trial,  as  well  as  by  the  ordinal 

people.     It  may  here  be  remarked,  that  the  Pullati^  whom  we  me< 

with  in  the  classics,  were  not  only  those  who  wore  the  Toga  fiuU 

or  the  Toga  sordida^  but  such  too  as  were  attired  in  the  PcnuU  i 

fMCcnia;,  which  were  usually  black.     Thus  the  learned  Casaubc 

inicvprcia /iu I ia torn fn  turba  in  Suetonius;*  and  Quintilian  calls  th 

rabble  fiullatufi  circulus^^  and  jiullata  turba.^    Hence  it  may  reasoi 

ably  be  conjectured,  that  when  the  Roman  state  was  turned  into 

monarchy,  the  gowns  began  to  be  laid  aside  by  men  of  the  lowc 

rank,  the  PatiuU  and   Lucernx  being   introduced   in   their  roon 

and  commonly  worn  without  them,  or  sometimes  over  them;  ihi 

irregularity  had  gained  a  great  head,  even  in  Augustus's  lime,  who 

lo  rectify  it  in  some  measure,  commanded  the   yF.diles  that  the; 

should  suffer  no  person  in  the  forum  or  circus  to  w  car  the  Laccrn 

over  his  gown,  as  was  then  an  ordinary  practice.     The  same  ex 

cellent  prince,  taking  notice  at  a  public  meeting  of  an  innumerabi 

company  of  rabble  in  these  indecent  habits,  cried  out  with  indign? 

lion, 

En! 

linmanos  reruni  dominoft  gentenique  togntam.^ 

The  'I'oga  fiicta^  Jiurfiurca^  fialmata^  the  consular  Trabea^  thi 
Valiidumnituin^  and  the  C/ilamys,  had  very  little  difference  (except 
that  the  last  but  one  is  often  given  to  military  officers  in  general, 
and  sometimes  passes  for  the  common  soldiers'  coat),"*  and  are  pro- 
miscuously used  one  for  the  other,  being  the  robes  of  state  proper 


^  Cicero  pro  Cnclio. 
'  August,  cap.  40. 
'  Lib.  2.  cap.  IC. 


^  Lib.  6.  cap.  4. 

^  Sueton.  August,  cap.  40. 

"  Uayf,  de  Re  Vest.  cap.  11 


OF  THE   ROMANS. 


301 


u)  ihc  kings,  consuls,  emperors,  and  all  generals  during  their  tri- 
uniph.  This  sort  of  gown  was  called  Picta,  from  the  rich  ^^nibroi- 
ery,  with  figures  in  Phrygian  work;  2.x^i\  fuirfiurea,  because  the 
ground-work  was  purple.  The  Toga  fmlmata  indeed  very  seldom 
occurs,  but  may  probably  be  supposed  the  same  with  the  former, 
called  so  on  the  same  account  as  the  Tunica  fialmata,  which  will  bJ 
described  hereafter.  That  it  was  a  part  of  the  Iriuniplial  habit, 
Martial  intimates, 

/,  comes y  et  matfuos  ilUsa  inerere  triumphos, 
l^abuaUque  ilucem  {aed  cito)  redde  to^x. 

Antiquaries  are  very  little  agreed   in   reference  to  the    Trabeu. 
lulus  Manutius  was  certainly  out  when  he  fancied  it  to  be  the 
me  as  the  Tjga  fiicta,  and  he  is  accordingly  corrected  by  Gra^- 
1-."     The  vulgar  opinion  follows  the  distinction  of  Servius  and 
aliger  into  iluee  sorts,  one  proper  to  the  kings,  another  to  the 
isuls,  and  a  third  to  the  augurs.     But  Lipsius   and  RubeniusP  ac- 
owledged  only  one  proper  sort  of  Trabea  belonging  to  the  kings  ; 
being  a  white  gown  bordered  with  purple,  and  adorned  with  clavi 
ovtrab.s  of  scarlet.     Whereas  the  vests  of  the  consuls,  and  the 
augurs,  and  the  emperors,  were  called  by  the  same  name,  only  be- 
cause they  were  made  in  the  same  form.     For  the  old  Paludamen. 
'um  of  the  generals  was  all  scarlet,  only  bordered  with  purple;   and 
the  Chlamydes  of  the  emperors  were  all  purple,  commonly  beau- 
tified with  a  golden  or  embroidered  border. 

Suloniam  picto  chlainydem  cimimdata  limbo.     ViR.  iE\.  4.  137. 

\\  hen  the  emperors  were  themselves  consuls,  they  wore  a  Trabea 
adorned  with  gems,  which  were  allowed  to  none  else.  Claudian,  in 
his  poems  on  the  third,  foui^th,  and  sixth  consulship  of  Honorius, 
alludes  expressly  to  this  custom  : 


Cinctus  mutata  Gabinos 


\ncl 


Dives  Hyda6p<eis  augescat  purpura  gemmia. 


agam. 


Asperat  Indus 

Velamenta  lapis,  pretiosaque  flu  smuragdi.- 
Ducta  virent."    • 

^nd  in  the  last, 

Mcmbraqiie  gemmato  trabeoe  vindantia  cinctu. 

There  are  several  other  names  under  which  we  sometimes  find 
*ie  gown,  which  have  not  yet  been  explained,  nor  would  be  of  much 
se,  if  thoroughly  understood  :   Such  as  the  Toga  undulata,  sericu 

"  j'rxfat.  ad  1.  Vol.  Thes.  Rom.  o  Ad  Tacit.  Ann.  3 

i>e  Kc  A  cstiar.  ct  praecipue  de  Laticlav.  lib.  1   rap.  5 

40 


302 


THE    HA HIT 


or  THt  ROMANS. 


303 


lata,  rasa,  fiavrrata,  Phryxiaua,  scutulata^  Sec.     Sec  Kcriar.  dc  Hf 
Vest.  lib.  2.  cap.   10. 

The  Tunica,  or  close  coat,  was  the  common  p^arment  worn  withiu 
doors  by   itself,  and  abroad  under  the  p;own  :   The  Proletarii,  the 
Cafiite  cctjsi,  and  the  rest  of  the  drejrs  of  the  city,  could  not  afford 
to  wear  the  Tog-a,  and   so  went   in  their    Tunics  ;   whence  Horace 
calls  the  ral>ble  funicatus  fiofit-llus,  and   the  author  of  the  dialogue 
de  Claris  Oratoribus,  fio/iulus  funicatus.     The  old  Romans,  as  Gel- 
lius  informs  us,''  at  first  were  clothed  only  in  the  j^own.     In  a  liitlr 
time  ihoy  found  the  convenience  of  a  short  straight  tunic,  that  die! 
not  CUV.  r  the   amis;   like   the   Grecian   e^c^uth';.     Afterwards  thcv 
had  sleeves  comim>:  down  to   the  elbow,  but   no   farther.     Hence 
Suetonius  tells  us  that  Ca:sar  was  remarkable  in  his  habit,  because 
he   wore   the    Laticlauian  Tunic,  closed  with  gatherings  about  his 
wrist/     Hubrnius  thinks  he  might  use  this  piece  of  singularity  t(. 
show  himself  descended  from  the  Trojans,  to  whom   Romulus  ol' 
jccts,  in  Virgil,  as  an  iirguineni  of  their  effeminacy, 
Fj  tunicx'  majiicaSy  et  hiihent  redimicula  mitr;e.* 

And  Inlus,  or  Jscunius,  is  siiil  to  be  seen  dressed  after  the  same 
lashion,  in  some  old  gems.- 

Yet  ill  the  declension  of  the  empire,  the  rMr??r«  did  not  only  reach 
down  lo  the  ankles,  whence  they  arc  called  Tulares,h\M  had  sleeves 
too  coming  down  to  the  hands,  which  gave  them  the  name  of  Chi 
roilotd-.     And  now   it  was  counted  as  scandalous  to  appear  withou 
sleeves,  as  it  had  been  hitherto  to  be  seen  in  them.     And  therefore 
in  the  writers  of  that  age,  wc  commonly  find  the  accused  persons 3. 
a  trial   habited   in  the  Tunic  without  sleeves,  as  a  mark  of  infann 
and  disgrace." 

The   several  sorts  of  the  tityiic  were  the  Jialmata^  the  angusti 
clai'ia,  and  the  luticluvia. 

I'he  tunica  /lalnnitu  was  worn  by  generals  in  a  triumph,  and  per 
haps  always  under  the  toga  fucta.      It  had  its  name  either  from  the 
great  breadth  of  the  clavi,  equal  to  the  palm  of  the  hand  :  or  else 
from  the  figures  of  palms,  eml)roidered  on  ii.^ 

The  whole  body  of  the  eriiics  are  strangely  divided  about  the 
rlavi.  Some  fancy  them  to  have  been  a  kind  of  flowers  interwoven 
in  the  cioih;  others  will  have  them  lo  be  the  buttons  or  clasps  b} 
which  the  tunic  was  held  together.  A  third  sort  contend,  that  the 
lutus  clavus  was  nothing  else  but  a  tunic  bordered  with  purple 
Scaiiger  thinks  the  clavi  did  not  belong  properly  to  the  vest,  but 


1  Lib.  1.  cap.  12. 
•  Suet.  Jill,  cap   55. 
•iKiieid.  xii.  616, 


'  Rubtnius  de  Luticluy.  lib.  1.  cap.  1-. 

^  ibalem. 

'  Festus  in  voce. 


hung  down  from  the  neck  like  chains  and  ornaments  of  that  nature 
But  the  most  general  opinion  makes  them  to  have  been  studs  or 
pearls  something  like  heads  of  nails,  of  purple  or  gold,  worked  into 
the  tunic. 

All  the  former  conjectures  are  learnedly  confuted  by  the  accurate 
Uubenius,  who  endeavours  lo  prove,  that  the  clavi  were  no  more  than 
purple  lines  or  streaks  coming  along  the  middle  of  the  garments, 
which  were  afterwards  iniproved  to  golden  and  embroidered  lines  of 
the  same  nature.  Wc  must  not  therefore  suppose  them  to  have  re- 
ceived their  name  as  an  immediate  allusion  to  the  heads  of  nails,  to 
which  they  bore  no  resemblance ;  but  may  remember  that  the  an- 
cients used  to  inlay  their  cups  and  otiier  precious  utensils  with  studs 
of  gold,  or  other  ornamental  materials.  These,  from  their  likeness 
to  nail-heads,  they  called  in  general  clavi.  So  that  it  was  very  na- 
tural to  bring  the  same  word  to  signify  these  lines  of  purple,  or  other 
colours,  which  were  of  a  different  kind  from  all  the  rest  of  the  gar- 
ment, as  those  ancient  clavi  were  of  a  different  colour  and  figure 
from  the  vessels  which  they  adorned. 

These  streaks  were  either  transverse  or  straight  down  the  vest; 
the  former  were  used  only  in  the  liveries  of  the  fiofia:  and  other  pub- 
lic servants,  by  the  musicians,  and  some  companies  of  artificers, 
and  now  and  then  by  women,  being  termed  fiaragaudx.  The  pro- 
per clavi  came  straight  down  the  vest,  one  of  them  making  the 
*unic,  which  they  called  the  angusticlave,  and  two  the  laticlave. 

However  this  opinion  has  been  aj)plauded  by  the  learned,  Mon- 
sieur Dacier's  judgment  of  the  matter  cannot  fail  to  meet  with  a  kind 
reception. 

He  tells  us  that  the  clavi  were  no  more  than  purple  galoons,  with 
which  they  bordered  the  fore  part  of  the  tunic,  on  both  sides,  and 
the  place  where  it  came  together.  The  broad  galoons  made  the 
faticlave ;  and  the  narrow  the  angunticlave.  Therefore  they  are 
strangely  mistaken,  who  make  the  only  difference  between  the  two 
vests  to  consist  in  this,  that  the  one  had  but  a  single  clavus,  the  other 
two,  and  that  the  senatorian  clavus.,  being  in  the  middle  of  the  vest, 
could  possibly  be  but  one.  For  it  is  very  plain  they  had  each  of 
them  two  galoons,  binding  the  two  sides  of  the  coat  where  it  opened 
before;  so  that,  joining  together  with  the  sides,  they  appeared  just 
in  the  middle;  whence  the  Greeks  called  such  a  vest  f^£c»^o^0voov. 
That  the  galoons  were  sewed  on  both  sides  of  the  coat,  is  evident 
beyond  dispute  from  the  following  passage  of  Varro  :  "  Nam  si  quis 
tunicam  ita  consuit,  ut  altera  plagula  sit  angustis  clavis,  altera  latis, 
utraque  pars  in  suo  genere  caret  analogia."  '*  For  if  any  one  should 
sew  a  coat  in  this  manner,  that  one  side  should  have  a  broad  galoon. 


J04 


THE   HABIT 


OF  THE  ROMANS. 


303 


and  the  other  a  narrow  one,  neither  part  has  any  thing  properk 
answering  to  ii."  As  to  the  name  of  ihe  clavi,  he  thinks  there  needs 
no  farther  reason  to  he  given,  than  that  the  ancients  called  any 
thing  which  was  made  with  design  to  be  put  upon  another  ihinir 

It  has  been  a  received  opinion,  that  the  angusticlave  distinguisli- 
cd  the  knight  from  the  common  people,  in  the  same  manner  as  the 
laticlai^c  did   the  senators  from  those  of  the  equestrian  rank;  but 
JUiljcnius  avers,  that  there  was  no  manner  of  difference  between  the 
tunics  of  the  knights,  and  those  of  the  commons.   This  conjecture 
seems  to  be  favoured  by  Appian,  in  the  second  book  of  his  history, 
where  he  tells  us,  «  ^^^6^.  ^r/,  to  trxK/^u,  to??  hTirorcci<i  cu^ifx;'  y^  rr; 
fii<XevT(KK^  \  u>,\r,  a-To^t,  to^  ^e^u^arn  iTriKono^.    "  The  slave  in  habits 
goes  like  his  master;   and,  excepting  only  the  senator's  robe,  all 
other  garments  are  common  to  the  servants."     And  Pliny,  when 
he  says  that  ilic  rings  distinguished  the  equestrian  order  from  the 
common  people,  as  their  ru,:tc  did  the  Semite  from  those  that  wore 
the  rings,  would  not  probably  have  omitted  the  other  distinction, 
Iiad  it  been  real.    Hesides  both  these  authoriiics,  Lampi  idius,  in  the 
lilc  of  Alexander  Severus,  coiifirms  the  present  assertion.     He  ac- 
quaints us,  that  the  aforesaid  emperor  had  some  thoughts  of  assi^-n- 
ing  a  proper  habit  to  servants  diflfcreni  from  that  of  their  masters, 
but  his  great  lawyers,  Ulpian  and  Paulus,  dissuaded  him  from  the 
project,  as  what  would  infallibly  give  occasion  to  much  quarrelling 
and  dissention;  so  that  upon  the  whole,  he  was  contented  onlv  to 
distinguish  the  senators  from  the  knights  by  their  c/avufi. 

But  all  this  argument  will  come  to  nothing,  unless  we  can  cica: 

the  point  about  the  use  of  the  purple  among  the  Romans,  which  the 

Civilians  tell   us  was  strictly  forbidden  the  common  people  under 

the  emperors.   It  may  therefore  be  observed,  that  all  the  prohibitions 

(»f  this  nature  were  restrained  to  some  particular  species  of  purple. 

Thus  Julius  Cxsar  forbade  the  use  of  the  conchylian  garments,  or 

the  kXH^yih<,-  And  Nero  afterwards  prohibited  the  ordinary  use  of 

the  amethystine,  or  Turian  pnrple.y     These  conjectures  of  Rube- 

nius  need  no  better  confirmation  than  that  they  are  repeated  and 

approved  by  the  most  jucidiuus  GrcXvius.^ 

According  to  this  opinion,  it  is  an  easy  matter  to  reconcile  the 
contest  between  Manutius  and  Lipsius,  atid  the  inferior  critic^  -f 
both  parties,  about  the  colour  of  the  tunic,  the  former  asserting  ii 
to  be  purple,  and  the  other  white;  for  it  is  evident,  it  mighUiv 

wpacier  on  Horace,  lib.  2.  Sat.  5.     v  ,jem  Nerone,  cap.  32. 

X  Sueton.  Jul.  cap.  45.  ^  Sueton.  Jul.  43,  Otho.  10.  Domitian.  10 


,  ailed  either,  if  we  suppose  the  ground-work  to  have  been  white, 
with  the  addition  of  these  purple  lists  or  galoons. 

As  to  the  persons  who  had  the  honour  of  wearing  the  laticlave^ii 
may  be  mentioned,  that  the  sons  of  those  senators,  who  were  patri- 
citins,  had  the  privilege  of  using  this  vest  in  their  childhood,  together 
with  ihc /iroctc.vta.  But  the  sons  of  those  senators  who  were  not  pa- 
uicians,  did  not  put  on  the  iatic/avc,  till  they  applied  themselves  to 
the  service  of  the  commonwealth,  and  to  bear  offices.'  Vet  Augus- 
tus changed  this  custom,  and  gave  the  sons  of  any  senators  leave  to 
assume  the  laticlavc  presently  after  tlie  time  of  their  putting  on  the 
I'jf-a  virilis,  though  they  were  not  yet  capable  of  honours.'*  And  by 
the  particular  favour  of  the  emperors,  the  same  privilege  was  allow- 
ed to  the  more  splendid  families  of  the  knights.  Thus  Ovid  speaks 
of  himself  and  his  brother,  who  are  known  to  have  been  of  the 
equestrian  order :' 

Interea^  tacito  passu  lahevtibu.i  aimisy 

Libenor  fratra  sinnpta  mihiqne  toga  ; 
Induiturijue  humeiis  cum  lata  purjtura  cinvo,  &f 

And  Stalius  of  Melius  Ccler,  whom  in  another  place  he  terms 
file7i(li(lifisi?nuft^'^  (the  proper  style  of  the  knights): 


Pticr  hie  aiidavit  in  armis 


^Votus  adhiic  tantinn  viajoris  mvnere  clavi.' 

Besides  the  gown  and  tunic,  we  hardly  meet  with  any  garments 
jf  the  Roman  original,  or  that  deserve  the  labour  of  an  enquiry  into 
their  difference.  Yet,  among  tliese,  the  lacerna  and  \\\q.  fienula  occur 
more  frequently  than  any  other.  In  the  old  gloss  upon  Persius,  Sat, 
ver.  68.  they  arc  both  called  //«///a  ;  which  identity  of  names 
might  probably  arise  from  the  near  resemblance  they  bore  one  to  the 
other,  and  both  to  the  Grecian  fiallium.  The  lacerna  was  first  used 
in  the  camp,  but  afterwards  admitted  into  the  city,  and  worn  upon 
•heir  gowns  to  defend  them  from  the  weather.  The  penula  was 
:>ometimes  used  with  the  same  design,  but,  being  shorter  and  fitter 
for  expedition,  it  was  chielly  worn  upon  a  journey. ^ 

Kubenius  will  have  the  lacerna  and  the  fienula  to  be  both  close- 
bodied  kind  of  frocks,  girt  about  in  the  middle,  the  only  difference 
between  them  being,  that  the  fienula  were  always  brown,  the  lacerna 
''  no  certain  colour;  and  that  the  cucullus,  the  cowl  or  hood,  was 
<wed  on  the  former,  but  worn  as  a  distinct  thing  from  the  other.e 


Pliny,  lib.  8.  Epist.  23. 
Sueton.  Aug.  cap.  '27. 
Tristium,  lib.  iv.  Kleg.  10. 
Prsfat.  ad  lib.  3.  Svharum. 


«  Syh-.  lib.  3.  carm.  2. 
'Lips.  Elect,  lib.  1.  cap.  13.  et  Dr. 
Ilolyday  on  Juvenal,  Sat.  1. 
'  Ue  Laticlavc,  lib.  1.  cap.  6. 


306 


IHE  HAmi- 


But  I-  erranus,  who  has  spent  a  whole  book  in  animadverting  on  ti 
author,  wonders  that  any  body  should  be  so  ignorant  as  not  to  knn  ' 
these  two  garments  to  have  been  quite  distinct  species  ^ 

It  wdl  be  expected  that  the  habits  of  the  Roman  priests  should 
be  particularly  described;  but  we  have  no  certain  intell.gence  o! 
vyhat  conce,  ned  the  ch.efof  then.,  the  Augurs,  I'lamens,  and  the'pon 
t.hces.  1  he  auHurs  wore  the  trab,fa,  first  dyed  with  scarlet  and  after 
wards  w.th  purple.     Kubenius  takes  the  robe  which  Herod  in  der 
sion  put  on  our  Saviour  to  have  been  of  this  nature,  because  St 
Matthew  calls  it  scarlet,  and  St.  Luke  purple.     Cicero  useth  d,b. 
Iilnix'  (a  garment  twice  dyed)  (or  the  augural  robe. 

The  proper  ,obe  of  the  Jlaminc.  was  the  Una,  a  sort  of  purnl, 
chlamy.,  or  almost  a  double  gown,  fastened  about  the  neck  witL 
buckle  or  clasp.  It  was  in.e.  woven  curiously  with  gold,  so  as  to  an 
pear  very  splendid  and  mag.nficent.  Thus  Virgil  describes  h.shcro 
m  this  habit : 


OF  THE  ROMANS. 


3or 


Tijrioque  ardebato  murice  Una 


f)rmssa  e.r  humevig ,-  diwit  quje  muntra  Dido 

Irc^rat,  et  tenui  telas  discveverat  aura.  JEs.  4,  262 

l-he  pon.ills  had  the  honour  of  using  ihc  J.r^tc^cta  ]  and  so  had 
;he  hpuion(^s,  as  we  learn,  Livy,  lib.  4,1. 

The  priests  were  ren.arkable  for  their  modesty  in  apparel,  anU 
therefore  they  n.ade  use  only  of  the  con.mon  purple,  never  affect, 
ing  the  more  chargeable  and  splendid.  Thus  Cicero,  VestHu,  a.„„ 
mw-a  hac, purpura  ,,lrbeia  ac  fiene  fusca.,  He  calls  it  our  purple 
because  he  hin.seU  was  a  member  of  the  college  of  augurs 

There  are  two  farther  remarks  which  may  be  made  in  reference 
to  the  habits  m  general.  First,  that  in  the  time  of  any  public  cala- 
mity, It  was  an  usual  custom  to  change  their  apparel,  as  an  argumeni 
of  humiluy  and  contrition;  of  which  we  meet  with  many  instances 
m  history.  On  such  occasion  the  senators  laid  by  the  latic/ave,  and 
appeared  only  in  the  habit  of  knights;  the  .nagisirates  threw  aside 
the/,r*/r.r/«,  and  came  abroad  in  the  senatorian  garb  ;  the  knights 
left  off  their  rings,  and  the  commons  changed  their  gowns  for  the 
sagum  or  military  coat.'' 

The  other  remark  is  the  observation  of  the  great  Casaubon,  that 
the  habit  of  the  ancients,  and  particularly  of  the  Romans,  in  no  re- 
spect fliffered  more  from  the  modern  dress  than  in  that  thev  had 
nothing  answering  to  our  breeches  and  stockings,  which,  if  we'were 
to  express  in  Latin,  we  should  call  femora /ia  and  iidialia.  Yet,  in- 
stead  of  these,  under  their  lower  tunics  or  waistcoats,  they  some- 


Analoct.  do  Re  Vest.  cap.  ult. 
Kpist.  Famil.  lib.  2.  Epist.  16. 


jound  their  thighs  and  legs  round  with  silken  scarfs  or  fascia; 
though  these  had  now  and  then  the  name  oifaniinalia  ov  femoralia 
und  tibialia^  from  the  parts  to  which  they  are  applied. « 

As  to  the  habit  of  the  other  sex,  in  the  ancient  times  of  the  com- 
monwealth, the  gown  was  used  alike  by  men  and  women."  After- 
wards the  women  took  up  the  stola  and  the  fialla  for  their  separate 
dress.  The  stola  was  their  ordinary  vest,  worn  within  doors,  coming 
!  iun  to  their  ankles ;  when  they  went  abroad  they  slung  over  it  the 
'  ilia  or  fiallium^  a  long  open  manteau,"  which  covered  the  stola  and 
'eir  whole  body.     Thus  Horace, 

Ad  talos  stola  deniissa  et  circvmdata  pallas 

.And  V^irgil  describing  the  habit  of  Camilla, 

Pro  crinali  auro,  p'-o  long<e  tegmiyie  palLe, 
Tigridis  exuviiS  per  dorsum  a  vertice  pendents 

They  dressed  their  heads  with  what  they  called  vittcs  andya*cz>. 
.Ibbons  and  thin  sashes;  and  the  last  sort  they  twisted  round  their 
wiiole  body,  next  to  the  skin,  to  make  them  slender;  to  which  Te- 
rence alludes  in  his  Eunuch  i"^ 

Kubenius  has  found  this  difference  in  the  stol(e^  that  those  of  the 
rdinary  women  were  white,  trimmed  with  golden  purls:' 

Hand  similis  virgo  est  virginum  nostrarum  ;  quas  matres  student 
Hemissis  hiimeris  esse^  vincto  pectore^  nt  graciles  stent. 

The  former  Ovid  makes  to  be  the  distinguishing  badge  of  honest 
aiatrons  and  chaste  virgins. 

Este  procul  vittx  tenueSf  insigne  pudoiis,* 
And  describing  the  chaste  Daphne,  he  says, 
Vitta  coercebat  positos  siyio  lege  capillos.^ 

It  is  very  observable,  that  the  common  courtezans  were  not  allow- 
ed to  appear  in  the  a/o/c,  but  obliged  to  wear  a  sort  of  gown,  as  a 
mark  of  infamy,  by  reason  of  its  resemblance  to  the  habit  of  the  op- 
posite sex.     Hence  in  that  place  of  Horace, 

Quid  inter- 


'  Pro  Sextio. 

^  Fcrrar.  de  Re  Vestiar.  lib.  1.  cap.  ^7. 


Est  in  matronOf  ancillaj  peccesve  togata  ?     L.  1.  Sat.  2.  v.  62. 

The  most  judicious  Dacier  understands  by  togata  the  common 
^trumpet,  in  opposition  both  to  the  matron  and  the  servant-maid. 
Some  have  thought  that  the  women  (on  some  account  or  other) 

'  Sueton.  August,  cap.  82.     Casaubon.  ad  locum. 

"»  Vide  Ferrar.  de  Re  Vest.  lib.  2.  cap.  17. 

"  Dacier  on  Horace,  Jib.  1.     Sat.  2.  ver.  99. 

"  Horace,  ibid.  '  De  Laticlave,  lib.  1.  cap.  16. 

^  iEn.  11.  ver.  576.  •  Metamorph.  lib.  1.  Fab.  9. 

^  Act  2,  Seen.  3.  *  I  jpsius  de  Amphitheat.  cap.  19. 


;|. 


308 


THE   HABIT 


OF  THE  ROMANS. 


309 


wore  the  iaccrnu  loo  ;  out  the  rise  of  this  fancy  is  owing  to  their  mis 
•akc  of  that  verse  in  Juvenal, 

fpse  faci'rnat.e  nun  fte  Jactaret  iimicce. 

Where  it  must  be  observed,  that  the  poet  does  not  speak  of  H  , 
ordinary  misses,  but  of  the  eunuch  Sporus,  upon  whom  Nero  made 
an  experiment  in  order  to  change  his  sex.  So  thai  Juvenal's  ia- 
rernuta  arnica  is  no  more  than  if  we  should  say,  a  "  mistress  in 
breeches.*' 

The  attire  of  the  head  and  feci  will  take  in  all  that  remains  of  this 
subject.     As  to  the  first  of  these,  it  has  been  a  former  remark,  thai 
the  Romans  ordinarily  used  none,  except  the  lappet  of  the  gown; 
and  this  was  not  a  constant  cover,  but  only  occasional,  to  avoid  the 
rain  or  sun,  or  other  accidental  inconveniences.     Hence  it  is  thai 
we  see  none  of  ihc  old  statues  wiih  any  on  their  heads,  besides  now 
and  then  a  wreatli,  or  something  of  that  nature.   Eustathius,  on  the 
first  of  the  Ody.^ses,  tells  us,  that  the  Latins  derived  this  custom  of 
going  bareheaded  from  the  (irceks,  ii  being  notorious,  that,  in  the 
age  of  the  heroes,  no  kind  of  haisor  caps  were  at  all  in  fashion;  nor 
is  there  any  such  thing  to  be  met  wiih  in  Homer.  Yet  at  some'par- 
licular  times  we  find  the  Romans  using  some  sort  gf  covering  for  the 
iiead  ;  as  at  the  sacrifices,  at  the  public  games,  at  the  feast  of  Saturn, 
upon  a  journey  or  a  warlike  expedition.   Some  persons  too  were  al- 
lowed to  have  their  heads  always  covered,  as  men  who  had  been 
lately  made  free,  and  were  thereupon  shaved  close  on  their  head, 
might  wear  ihc  /lUms,  both  as  a  defence  from  the  cold,  and  as 
badge  of  their  liberty.    And  the  same  privilege  was  granted  to  pci 
sons  under  any  indisposition." 

As  for  the  several  sorts  of  coverings  designed  for  these  uses,  man^ 
of  them  have  been  long  confounded  beyond  any  possibility  of  a  di^ 
tinction;  and  the  learned  Salmasius'' has  observed  that  the  w/7ra 
and  ihc /liU'us,  the  cucu/lus,  the  gahrus, -^nd  ihe /iailio^um,  were  all 
coverings  of  the  head  very  little  differing  from  one  another,  and  pro- 
miscuously used  by  authors  ;  however,  there  are  some  of  them  whirli 
deserve  a  more  particular  enquiry. 

The  g-aln-us  Vossius^^  derives  from  ^^aiea,  the  Roman  helmci,  to 
which  we  must  suppose  ii  to  have  borne  some  resemblance.  Servius 
when  he  reckons  up  the  several  sorts  of  the  priests'  caps,  makes  the 
cra/^r/^.v  one  of  them,  being  composed  of  the  skin  of  the  beast  ofTered 
in  sacrifice ;  the  other  two  being  the  a/iex;  a  stitched  cap  in  the  form 
of  a  helmet,  with  the  addition  of  a  little  stick  fixed  on  the  top,  an. 


"  Lipsiusde  Amphltheat.  cap.  19. 

'  In  Vopisc.  et  Grxv.  in  Sueton.  Claud.  2. 


w 


Cap.  12 


on 


.vound  about  with  white  wool,  properly  belonging  to  the  JiamineB ; 

and  the  tutulu8,  a  woollen  turban,  much  like  the  former,  proper  to 

•he  high  priest.  By  the  galerus  it  is  likely  he  means  the  albo-gale^ 

■us,  made  of  the  skin  of  a  white  beast  off*ered  in  sacrifice,  with  the 

Idition  of  some  twigs  taken  from  a  wild  olive-tree,  and  belonging 

ly  to  5uiiher'sjame?i ;  yet  we  find  a  sort  oi  galerus  in  use  among 

!ic  ordinary  men,  and  the  galericuliun  (which  some  do  call  galerus) 

.ommon  to  both  sexes;  this  was  a  skin  so  neatly  dressed  with  men 

or  women's  hair,  that  it  could  not  easily  be  distinguished  from  the 

natural ;  it  was  particularly  used  by  those  who  had  thin  heads  of  hair, 

IS  Suetonius  reports  of  Nero ;»  as  also  by  the  wrestlers,  to  keep  their 

own  hair  from  receiving  any  damage  by  the  nasty  oils  with  which 

i.cy  were  rubbed  all  over  before  they  exercised.     This  we  learn 

:oni  Martial's  distich  on  the  galericulum  :  xiv.  50. 

.\>  hitet  immundum  vitidon  ceroma  capiHos, 
Ilac  potevas  madidas  condere  pelle  comas. 

The  /li/eus  was  the  ordinary  cap  or  hat  worn  at  public  shows  and 
acrifices,  and  by  the  freed  men;  for  a  journey  they  had  xhe/ieiasus, 
ifiering  only  from  the  former  in  that  it  had  broader  brims,  and  bore 
k  nearer  resemblance  to  our  hats,  as  appears  from  the  common  pic- 
tures of  Mercury  ;  and  hence  it  took  its  name  from  T£T«v,e.^/,  to  open 
ur  spread  out.y 

The  ??iitra,  the  tiaro,  and  the  diadem,  though  we  often  meet  with 
them  in  Roman  authors,  are  none  of  them  beholden  to  that  nation 
for  their  original.  The  mitre  seems  to  owe  its  invention  to  the 
Trojans,  being  a  crooked  cap  tied  under  the  chin  with  ribbons ;  it 
belonged  only  to  the  women  among  the  Romans,  and  is  attributed 
:o  ihe  foreign  courtezans  that  set  up  their  trade  in  that  city,  such 
.^s  the 

■ pi  eta  htpa  harhara  mitral 

in  Juvenal ;  yet  among  the  Trojans  we  find  it  in  use  among  the  men 
Thus  Romulus  scouts  them  in  Virgil  : 

Et  tuniciC  maJiicas  et  habent  redhnicula  mitr<e  .' 
O  vere  Phrygiit :  iieque  enim  Phryges  !^ 

And  even  ^neas  himself  is  by  larbis  described  in  this  dress: 

JMceonia  menturn  mitra  crinemque  madentem 
Sub7iexvs.  ^N.  4.  216. 

The  tiara  was  the  cap  of  state  used  by  all  the  eastern  kings  and 
?,neat  men,  only  with  this  difference,  that  the  princes  wore  it  with 
a  short  strait  top,  and  the  nobles  with  the  point  a  little  bending 
downwards.*  ^ 

^  Vossius  Etymolog.  in  voce  Petasus.       z  JEn.  9.  616. 
•  L.psius  de  Amphltheat.  cap.  19.  a  Dempster  ad  Kosin.  lib.  5,  cap.  35^ 

41- 


_!■ 


no 


TIIi:  ilABIT 


OF  THE  ROMANS. 


311 


riic  diacieiii  belonged  to  the  kings  of  Rome  as  well  as  lo  ihi 
foreign  princes;  this  seems  to  have  been  no  more  than  a  white  scad 
ov  faacia  bound  about  the  head,  like  that  which  composcth  the 
Turkish  turban.  Those  who  are  willing  lo  find  some  nearer  resem 
blancc  between  the  diadem  and  our  modern  crowns,  may  be  convinc 
cd  of  their  mistake  from  that  passage  of  Plutarch,  where  he  iclk 
us  of  a  princess  that  made  use  of  her  diadem  to  hang  herself  with. 

These  white/a&c/tc  among  the  Romans  were  always  looked  on  as 
marks  of  sovereignty  ;  and  therefore,  when  I'ompey  the  Great  ap- 
peared commonly  abroad  with  a  white  scarf  wound  about  his  leg, 
upon  pretence  of  a  bruise  or  an  ulcer,  those  who  were  jealous  ol 
his  growing  poAver  did  not  fail  to  interpret  it  as  an  omen  of  his  af 
fecting  the  supreme  command  ;  and  one  Favonius  plainly  told  him. 
it  made  little  odds  on  what  part  he  wore  the  diadem,  the  intcntioi 
being  much  the  samc.^ 

To  descend  to  the  feet  :  The  several  sorts  of  the  Roman  shots 
-slippers,  See.  which  most  frequently  occur  in  reading,  are  the /if 
ronea^  the  calcei  lunati^  the  mullciy  the  solete  and  cre/iicU^  and  thi 
calig<£^  besides  the  cot/iur/iu,s  and  aoccua,  which  have  been  alreadv 
described. 

The  perones  were  a  kind  of  high  shoes,  rudely  formed  of  rav, 
hides,  and  reaching  up  to  the  middle  of  the  leg ;  they  were  not  onh 
used  by  the  country  people,  as  soirie  imagine,  but  in  the  city  too  b\ 
men  of  ordinary  rank;  nay,  Rubenius  avers,  that,  in  the  elder  timel 
of  the  commonwealth,  the  senators,  as  well  as  others,  went  in  the 
/itrontii ;'«  however,  when  they  came  to  be  a  little  polished,  they  left 
this  clumsy  wear  to  the  ploughmen  and  labourers,  and  we  scarce  fim; 
them  applied  to  any  one  else  by  the  authors  of  the  flourishing  ages 
Tiius  Persius  brings  in  the        .  , 


J*i'vu7iatus  uratov 


And  Juvenal, 


Qiicm  /ton  pndtl  alto 


Sat.  5.  v.  102 


Sit.   M.  V    l«f 


I^er  gUiciein  fterone  tegi. 

Virgil,  indeed,  makes  some  of  hi^  ^^y.ili^ro  wear  the  /u/o,  but  ihci. 
ihey  were  only  a  company  of  plain  rustics,  Icirio  a^ratis,  as  he  call^ 
ihem;  besides,  they  wore  it  but  on  one  foot  : 


Vtatigia  nuda  sinistvi 


r,. 
i 


Ittatituere  peclisy  cnalus  teg-it  altera  pero.  ^ly.  r.  69^ 

The  calcti  lunati  were  proper  to  the  patricians,  to  distinguish  ihcni 
roni  the  vulgar,  so  called  from  a  half-moon  in  ivory  worn  upon 


''  Plut.  in  Lucull. 

*  Valcr.  Max.  lib.  6.  cap.  ;' 


;iicm.  Baldwin  will  have  the  half-moon  to  have  served  instead  of  a 
fibula  or  buckle;'  but  Rubenius'  refutes  this  conjecture,  by  show- 
ing Irom  Philostratus  that  it  was  worn  by  way  of  ornament,  not  on 
the  fore  part  of  the  shoe,  like  the  buckle,  but  about  the  ankle. 
Plutarch,  in  his  Roman  questions,  gives  abundance  of  reasons  why 
they  used  the  half-moon  rather  than  any  other  figure;  but  none  of 
his  fancies  have  met  with  any  approbation  from  the  learned.  The 
common  opinion  makes  this  custom  an  allusion  to  the  numl)cr  of 
senators  at  their  first  institution,  which  being  a  hundred,  was  signi- 
fied by  the  numeral  letter  C. 

Yet  the  Patricians,  before  they  arrived  at  the  senatorian  age,  and 
even  before  they  put  on  the  firatexia^  had  the  privilege  of  usinp; 
the  half-moon  on  their  shoes.     Thus  Statius,  Sylv.  v.  2,  n  : 

Sic  ie,  dare  puer,  genitum  sibi  curia  sensit ; 
Primaqiu'  Patricia  clausit  vestigia  lima. 

As  for  the  senators,  who  were  not  patricians,  they  did  not  indeed 
.vcar  the  half-moon ;  but  that  ornament  seems  not  to  have  been  the 
only  difference  between  the  senatorian  and  the  common  shoes ;  for 
the  former  are  commonly  represented  as  black,  and  coming  up  to  the 
middle  of  the  leg,  as  in  Horace,  Book  i.  Sat.  6.  27  : 

JVigris  medium  impediit  cms 


Pellibus. 

Rubenius  will  have  this  understood  only  of  the  four  black  straps, 
which  he  says  fastened  the  senators'  shoes,  being  tied  pretty  high  on 
the  leg.R  Dacier  tells  us  the  senators  had  two  sorts  of  shoes,  one  for 
Mimnier,  and  the  other  for  winter;  the  summer  shoes  he  describes 
with  such  leathern  straps  crossing  one  another  many  times  about  the 
icg,  and  nothing  but  a  sole  at  the  bottom;  these  he  calls  camfiagi ; 
hough  Rubenius  attributes  this  name  to  a  sort  of  caliga  worn  by 
the  senators  under  the  later  emperors. '^  The  winter  shoes,  he  says, 
were  made  of  an  entire  black  skin,  or  sometimes  a  white  one,  reach- 
ing up  to  cover  the  greatest  part  of  the  leg,  without  any  open  place, 
f^xcept  on  the  top.' 

It  is  uncertain  whether  the  calcei  mulLei  were  so  called  from  the 
colour  of  the  mullet,  or  whether  they  lent  a  name  to  that  fish  from 
■heir  reddish  dye  ;  they  were  at  first  the  peculiar  wear  of  the  Alban 
kings,  afterwards  the  kings  of  Rome,  and,  upon  the  establishment 
ol  the  free  state,  were  appropriated  to  those  persons  who  had  borne 
any  curule  office  :  but  perhaps  they  might  be  worn  only  on  great 
lays,  at  the  celebration  of  some  public  sports,  when  they  were  attired 


'  Dc  Laticlave,  hb.  2.  cap.  ' 


^  De  Calceo  Antiq.  cap.  9. 
*  I)e  Laticlave,  lib.  2.  cap.  4, 
«  De  lie  Vest.  lib.  2.  cap.  3 


'•  Ibid.  cap.  5, 
Dacier  on  Horace,  Book  1.  Sat.  C 


312 


IIIJ::   HABIT 


OF  THE  ROMANS. 


31 


in  the  whole  triumphal  hal)il ;  of  which  too  tlicse  shoes  made  a  part 
Julias  Caesar,  as  he  was  very  singular  in  his  whole  habit,  so  was  par 
ticularly  remarkable  for  wearini;  the  mutlci  on  ordinary  days,  whid 
he  did  to  show  his  descent  from  the  Alban  kings.'  In  colour  and 
fashion  they  resembled  the  cothurni^  coming  up  to  the  middle  lej', 
though  they  did  not  cover  the  whole  foot,  but  only  the  sole,  like 
sandals.'^  Dacicr  informs  us,  that,  at  such  time  as  the  emperors 
took  up  the  use  of  these  red  shoes,  the  curulc  magistrates  chani;e(' 
the  fashion  for  embroidered  ones.* 

The  Roman  solca  were  a  sort  of  sandals  or  pantofles,  without  any 
upper-leather,  so  that  they  covered  only  the  sole  of  the  foot,  bein^ 
fastened  above  with  straps  and  buckles  ;  these  were  the  ordinary 
fashion  of  the  women,  and  therefore  counted  scandalous  in  ih( 
other  sex;  thus  Cicero  exposeth  Verrcs,'"  and  Clodius,"  for  using 
this  indecent  wear;  and  I. ivy  acquaints  us,  that  the  great  Scipio 
was  censured  on  the  same  account  ;'>  yet  upon  all  occasions  of  mirlh 
and  recreation,  or  lawful  indulgence,  it  was  customary  for  the  men 
to  go  thus  loosely  shod,  as  at  entertainments,  and  at  pul)lic  shows 
of  all  sorts  in  the  circos  or  amphitheatres. 

The  crt'fiidx,  which  now  and  then  occur  in  Roman  authors,  arc 
generally  supposed  to  be  the  same  as  the  *o/^^,  under  the  Greek 
name  K^*,7ri^t^.  Bnt  Baldwin  is  so  nice  as  to  assign  this  difference, 
that  the  cre/iida  had  two  soles,  whereas  the  solecc  consisted  but  of 
one;  therefore  he  is  not  willing  to  be  beholden  to  the  Greeks  for 
the  word,  but  thinks  it  may  be  derived  from  the  cre/iicus,  or  creai;- 
ing  that  they  made,  which  could  not  be  so  well  conceived  in  those 
which  had  but  a  single  leather.?  That  the  Grecian  x^ajT/^^^did  really 
make  such  a  kind  of  noise,  which  we  cannot  imagine  of  the  sole£, 
i«  plain  from  the  common  story  of  Momus,  who  being  brought  to 
give  his  censure  of  V^enus,  could  find  no  fault,  only  that  her  K^^rk, 
or  slipper,  creaked  a  little  too  much. 

The  caii^a  was  properly  the  soldier's  shoe,  made  in  the  sandal 
fashion,  so  as  not  to  cover  the  upper  part  of  the  foot,  though  it 
reached  to  the  middle  of  the  leg.  The  sole  was  of  wood,  like  our 
old  galochcs,  or  the  sabots  of  the  French  peasants,  and  stuck  full  of 
nails  ;  these  nails  were  usually  so  very  long  in  the  shoes  of  the  Scouts 
and  centinels,  that  Suetonius'^  and  Tertullian^  call  those  cali^ct  spe- 

J    Die,  lib.  49.  o  Lib.  29. 

f  Lib.  2  cap.  2.  p  Baldwin.  Calc.  Antiq.  cap.  13. 

'   Dacier  on  Horace,  Book  1.  Sat.  6.  i  Caligul.  Cap,  52. 

«"  \  errin.  4.  r  jjg  {:qxqii.  Milit. 

"  De  Harusp.  Respons. 


datores^Ti^  if,  by  mounting  the  wearer  to  a  higher  pitch,  they  gave 
greater  advantage  to  the  sight. 

Il  was  from  these  caUg£,  that  the  emperor  Caligula  look  his 

,uiie,  having  been  born  in  the  army,  and  afterwards  bred  up  in  the 

lahit  of  a  common  soldier.*     And  lience  Juvenal,'  and  Suetonius,. 

use  cahifati  for  tlic  commori  soldiers,  without  the  addition  of  a  sub- 

niitive. 


CHAPTER  IX 


OF  THE  ROMAN   MAHHIAGKS. 

THE  marriages  of  the  Romans,  which  have  been  so  learnedly  ex 

jyiuincd  by  so  many  eminent  hands,  as  the  great  lawyers  Tiraguel, 

Sigonius,  Brisonius,  and  the  two  Hottomans,  will  appear  very  intelli 

^-ible  from  a  diligent  enquiry  into  the  espousals,  the  persons  Iha: 

might  lawfully  marry  with  one  another,  the  proper  season  for  mar- 

lage,  the  several  ways  of  contracting  matrimony,  the  ceremonies  of 

he  wedding,  and  the  causes  and  manner  of  divorces. 

The  espousals,  or  contract  before  marriage,  was  performed  by  an 

ngagement  of  the  friends  on  both  sides,  and  might  be  done  as  well 

between  absent  persons  as  present,  as  well  in  private  as  before  wit- 

Jiesscs;  yet  the  common  way  of  betrothing  was  by  writings  drawn 

jp  by  common  consent  and  sealed  by  both  parties.     Thus  Juvenal. 

Sat.  6.  199  : 

•SV  tibi  le^timis  pactamjunctamgue  tahcl'i, 
J\^on  es  amaturus. 

And  again,  Sat.  10.  336  : 

Veniet  cum  signatorilnis  auspcjc. 

liesides  this,  the  man  sent  a  ring  as  a  pledge  to  tiie  woiiiah,  whicii 
•n  Pliny's  time  was  used  to  be  of  iron,  without  any  stone  in  it  ' 
Thus  the  same  satirist, 

Conventum  tamen  et  pactum  et  sponsaliut  nostra 

Tevipestate  paras,  jamque  a  to7isore  magistro 

Pecterisy  et  digit o  pignus  fortasse  dedisti.  Sat.  6.  23. 

There  was  no  age  determined  by  the  laws,  for  espousals,  but  they 
night  be  made  at  any  lime^providcd  that  both  parties  were  sensible 


*  Sueton.  Caligul,  cap.  9. 
'  Sat.  16.  v.  24. 


August,  25. 

l*lin.  Nat.  Hist.  lib.  33.  cap.  1, 


314 


THE  MAKIUA(;i:S 


OF  THE   ROMANS. 


oi  the  obJigulions,  whicli  they  were  not  supposed  to  be  till  thcip  7ti, 
year;  yet  Augustus  afterwards  ordered,  that  no  espousals  should 
he  esteemed  valid,  except  such  as  were  consummated  by  the  nup- 
tials within  two  years  lime.w 

No  Roman  miijhi  marry  with  any  other  than  a  Roman  :  but  then 
this  was  extended  to  any  free  denizen  of  the  city,  though  born  in 
any  other  parts  ;  for  thus  Dyonisius"*  reports  of  the  Latins,  Livy 
of  the  Campanians,  and  Cicero^  of  the  inhabitants  of  Aricia  ;  yet 
in  Home  we  meet  with  one  eminent  restraint  about  these  matters, 
and  that  is  a  law  of  the  Decemviri,  prohibiting  any  marriage  be 
tween  the  Patrician  families  and  the  Plebeians.   Jiut  within  seven  oi 
eight  years,  the  commons  had  given  so  many  dangerous  tokens  oi 
their  resentment  of  this  injury,  that  upon  the  motion  of  Canuleius, 
Tribune  of  the  people,  the  Consuls  were  even  forced  to  give  consent 
to  the  enacting  of  a  contrary  decree,  allowing  a  free  alliance  inmar- 
liagc  between  persons  of  all  orders  and  degrees.* 

The  Romans  were  very  superstitious  in  reference  to  the  particular 
time  of  marriage,  fancying  several  days  and  seasons  very  unfortu- 
nate to  this  design;  the  kalends,  nones,  and  ides  of  every  month 
were  strictly  avoided  :  so  was  the  whole  feast  of  the  /larentulia  in 
February,  as  Ovid  observes.  Fast.  2.  561  : 

Co?iilr  tmisy  Hxjynenive,  faces,  et  ah  ignibua  atris 

Axiffv ;  habeut  alias  masta  scfnUc lira  faces. 
(io,  Hymen,  stop  the  lont,^  cxpcctinj:^  dames, 
And  hide  thy  torches  from  the  dismal  flames; 
I'hy  presence  would  he  latal  while  we  mourn,' 
And  at  sad  tombs  must  other  tapers  l)urn. 

The  whole  month  of  May  was  looked  on  as  ominous  to  con- 
tracting matrimony,  as  Plutarch  acquaints  us  in  his  Roman  questions, 
nnd  Ovid,  Fast.  5.  487 : 

<J\er  viduiV  tcedis  cnth-m,  ncc  virq-hiis  npta 
Tempova,  r/nx  nnpsit  von  fUnluvna  fuit. 
Ilac  (juoqut-  de  causa,  si  te proi^erbiu  tun^nmt, 

Mense  malas  Main  nnbere  vvltrus  ait. 
No  tapers  then  should  burn,  nor  ever  bride 
Link'd  at  this  season  long  her  bliss  enjov'd  ; 
Hence  our  wise  masters  of  the  proverbs*  say 
The  girls  are  all  stark  naught  that  wed  in  May. 
In  short,  the  most  happy  season,  in  all  respects,  for  celebrating 
he  nuptial  solemnity,  was  that  which   followed  the  ides  of  June 
Thus  Ovid,  speaking  of  his  daughter: 

J/anc  ego  cum  vellem  genero  dare,  tempora  tcedis 

.^pta  requirebam  gn^qite  cavenda  forent. 
Tunc  7m/ii  post  sacras  monstratur  Junius  Jdus 

Utilis  et  nuptisy  ntilis  esse  vitis.  Fast.  vi.  221 . 


Kesolv'd  to  match  the  girl,  1  try'd  to  find 

What  days  unprospcrous  were,  w  hat  moons  were  kind  ; 

After  .lime's  sacred  ides  my  fancy  stay'd, 

(iood  to  the  man,  and  happy  to  tlie  maid. 

The  three  ways  of  contracting  matrimony  were  farec,  coemjitione^ 
,;nd  usn,  which  fall  properly  under  the  consideration  of  the  civil  law  ; 
:lie  main  diftercnce  of  them,  in  short,  was  this;  Confarreatio  was, 
wjicn  the  matrimonial  rites  were  performed  with  solemn  sacrifices, 
and  offerings  of  burnt  cakes,  by  the  Pontifex  Maximus,  and  the 
Flamen  Dialis.  Pliny  says  this  was  the  most  solemn  tie  of  all;'' 
vet  we  are  assured,  that  after  some  time,  it  was  almost  universally 
laid  aside,  as  thought  to  include  too  many  troublesome  ceremonies. - 
V  divorce,  after  this  way  of  marriage,  Festus  calls  Defarreatio. 
ioern/Uio  was,  when  the  persons  solemnly  bound  themselves  to  one 
?jiothcr  by  the  ceremony  of  giving  and  taking  a  piece  of  money. 
The  marriage  was  said  to  be  made  bij  use^when  with  the  consent  of 
her  friends,  the  woman  had  lived  with  the  man  a  whole  year  com- 
plete, without  being  absent  three  nights,  at  which  time  she  was 
reckoned  in  all  respects  a  lawful  wife,  though  not  near  so  closely 
oincd  as  in  the  former  cases. 

'J'he  nuptial  ceremonies  were  always  begun  with  the  taking  of 
imensby  the  .dua/iice.s-.  Hence  Tully,  *  Nubit  genero  socrus  nullis 
.ii'.spicibus,  nullis  auctoribus,  funestis  omnibus  omnium."'* 

In  dressing  the  bride,  they  never  omitted  to  divide  her  locks  with 

:hc  head  of  a  spear,  either  as  a  token  that  their  marriages  first  began 

i)y  war,  and  acts  of  hostility  upon  the  rape  of  the  Sabine  virgins ;'  or 

:is  an  omen  of  bearing  a  valiant  and  warlike  offspring  ;  or  to  remind 

the  bride,  that  being  married  to  one  of  a  martial  race,  she  should  use 

herself  to  no  other  than  a  plain  unaffected  dress  :  or  because  the 

greatest  part  of  the  nuptial  care  is  referred  to  Juno,  to  whom  the 

bpcar  is  sacred,  whence  she  took  the  name  of  Dta  Quiris  ;    Qiiiris 

Ljnong  the  ancients  signifying  this  weapon.'      Oi^id  alludes  to  thi^- 

iustom  in  the  second  of  his  Fasti,  559: 

J\^ec  tibi  quic  cupidce  matura  videbere  matrix 
Comat  virgineas  liasta  vecui'va  comas. 

Thou  whom  thy  mother  frets  to  see  a  maid. 
Let  no  bent  spear  thy  virgin  locks  divide. 

In  the  next  place  they  crowned  her  with  a  chaplet  of  flowers,  ami 

put  on  her  veil  or  Flammcum^  proper  to  this  occasion.     Thus  Ca 

'ullus,  lix.  6 : 

Cinge  tcjnpora  foribus 
Suaveoltntis  amoraci  • 
Flammeum  cape. 


•*  Sueton.  Aug.  cap.  34. 

""  Lib.  6.  y  Lib.  38. 


'  In  Phihp. 
^  r  iv.  lib.  4 


''  Lib.  18.  cap.  2. 
^  Tacit.  Annal.  4. 
^  Orat.  pro  Cluent 


"■  Plutarch,  in  Romui. 
f  Idem,  Qu3e«t.  Worr.  S' 


JIG 


THE  MARHlAGilS 


\nil  Juvciial,  dcscribint^  Messalina,  when  about  to  luuirv  SHi 
7)ii(tum  sedet  illu  parato 


US 


t'htmmeoto.  Sat,  10. 

Instcuil  of  her  ordinary  clothes,  she  wore  the  tunica  recta^  oi 
»  onimon  tunic,  called  recta,  from  being  woven  upwards,  of  the 
same  nature  with  that  which  the  young  men  put  on  with  their  manh 
!^oiun  ;^  this  was  tied  a!)out  with  a  girdle,  which  the  bridegroom  was 
to  unloose. 

Being  dressed  after  this  manner,  in  the  evening  she  was  led  to 
wards  the  bridegroom's  house,  by  three  boys  habited  in  the  Prt 
fexta^  whose  fatlicrs  and  mothers  were  alive.  Five  torches  were 
tarried  to  light  her;  for  which  particular  number  Plutarch  has 
troubled  himself  to  find  out  several  reasons.''  A  distaff  and  a  spindk- 
were  likewise  borne  along  with  her,  in  memory  of  Caia,  Caecilia,  oi 
Tanaquil,  wife  to  Tarquinius  Priscus,  a  famous  spinster:'  And  on 
the  same  account,  the  bride  called  herself  Caia,  during  the  nuptial 
solemnity,  as  a  fortunate  name. 

Being  come  to  the  door,  which  was  garnished  with  flowers  and 
leaves,  according  to  that  of  Catullus,  Ixii.  292: 

Vt'stHjulitin  ut  molil  velntum  frojide  viverety 
*>he  bound  about  the  posts  with  woollen  lists,  and  washed  them  over 
w  ith  melted  tallow,  to  keep  out  infection  and  sorcery.     This  custom 
Virgil  alludes  to,  A^ln.  4.  457: 

Prxterea  J'uit  in  tectis  tie  marmove  tcinplum 
Conjugia  antiquif  miro  quod  houove  colebat^ 
l\'lUmbns  tiiveis  et  festa  fronde  rexniictJtm. 

Being  to  go  into  the  house,  she  was  not  by  any  means  to  touch 
:he  threshold,  but  was  lifted  over  by  main  strength.  Either  because 
the  threshohl  was  sacred  to  \'^esta,  a  most  chaste  goddess,  and  so 
ought  not  to  be  defiled  by  one  in  these  circumstances;  or  else, thai 
it  miglu  seem  a  piece  of  modesty  to  be  compelled  into  a  place  where 
she  should  cease  to  be  a  virgin.^ 

Upon  h<;r  entrance,  she  had  the  keys  of  the  house  delivered  to 
aer,  and  was  jiresentcd  by  the  bridegroom  with  two  vessels,  one  ol 
lire,  the  other  of  water,  either  as  an  emblem  of  purity  and  chastity, 
or  as  a  commimication  of  goods,  or  as  an  earnest  of  sticking  by  one 
uiother  in  the  greatest  extremities. k 

And  now  she  and  her  companions  were  treated  by  the  bridegroom 
at  iv  splendid  feast ;  on  which  occasion,  the  sumptuary  laws  allowed 
'i  lit  lie  more  liberty   than  ordinary  in  the  expenses.     This  kind  oi 


i  Plin^',  lib.  8.  cap.  48. 
•  Konj.  Quaest.  2. 
Pliny,  lib.  8.  cap.  48 


J  Plutarch.  Uom.  Quaest.  1. 
ad  Virgil.  Eclog.  8. 
'^  Plutarch.  Rom.  Quxst.  1. 


Serviuf 


OF  THE  ROMANS. 


ircat  was  seldom  >vithout  music,  composed  commonly  of  flutes;  the 
company  all  the  while  singing  Thallasius^  or  Thalasio^  as  the 
Greeks  did  Hyj7ien<eus.  There  arc  several  reasons  given  by  Plu- 
tarch,' for  the  use  of  this  word :  Tlie  common  opinion  makes  it  an 
admonishment  to  good  housewifery  ;  the  (ireek  word  TAXucrix  sig- 
nifying sfiinni7ig ;  and  among  the  conditions  which  were  agreed 
upon  by  the  Sabines  and  Romans,  after  the  rape  of  the  virgins,  this 
was  one,  that  the  women  should  be  obliged  to  no  servile  ofiice  for 
their  husbands,  any  farther  than  what  concerned  spinning. 

At  the  same  time  the  bridegroom  threw  nuts  about  the  room  for 
the  boys  to  scramble  :   thus  Virgil,  Kclog.  8 : 

Sparge,  marite,  imces. 
Out  of  the  many  reasons  given  for  this  custom,  the  most  commonly 
ccivcd  makes  it  a  token  of  their  leaving  childish  divertisements, 
(1  entering  on  a  more  serious  state  of  life  ;  whence  imcibus  rclictis 
s  passed  into  a  proverb.  This  conjecture  is  favoured  by  Catullus, 
.  131: 

Da  nuces  frjteris,  iners 
Conciibine :    Satis  din 
Lusisti  nucibus.     Lubet 
Jam  servire  ThaUissio. 
Concubine,  nuces  da. 

In  the  mean  time,  the  genial  bed  was  got  ready;  and  a  set  of 
good  old  wives,  that  had  never  been  married  but  to  one  man,  placed 
the  bride  on  it  with  a  great  deal  of  ceremony.     Thus  Catullus,  lix 
186: 

f^os  bonce  senibus  viris 
Cognita  bene  fa  mince. 
Collocate  puelhdam. 
Jam  licet  venias,  marite,  &c. 

Nothing  now  remained  but  for  the  bridegroom  to  loose  her  girdle. 

a  custom  that  wants  no  explanation ;  only  it  may  be  observed  to 

have  been  of  great  antiquity.     Thus  Moschus  in  his  story  of  Jupiter 

and  Europa,  190: 


Homer  Odyss.  2: 

And  Musaeus  in  Hero  and  Leander,  272: 

12$  'j!  fbiiv  TxZT  eiTey    o  ^  uuriot  Xu(rx]6  intT§>}V' 
Kcci  ti$e(rua)V  cVf^Jjeracy  u^(*rovoii  KvS-e^eiJji 

There  seldom  wanted  a  company  of  boys,  and  mad  sparks  got 
ogether,  to  sing  a  parcel  of  obscene  verses,  which  were  tolerated 

'  Plutarch,  in  Romul.  et  Rom.  Quxst.  31. 


.>18 


liiL    MARRlAGtS 


on  this  occasion.      Ji.cy  consisted  of  a  kind  of  t  esccnnme  rlnmc 

Aec  dill  hi'tat  fntcax 
VcsCt'H  ninii  h>  rut  it, . 

AtiH  CM'iudian  : 

Pcvtmsaiaijn-   I'll  i.<  lurtni  ncoitin^- 
F.xuHet  tetricis  lib>'ra  leifibus. 

The  (lay  alter,  the  new  married  man  held  a  stately  supper,  ami 
invited  ;ill  his  ohi  companions  to  a  drinkingr  matcli,  which 'they 
termed  rt/iotia. 

The  whole  suhjcct  of  divorces  beloni^s  entirely  to  the  lawyers, 
and    the  distinction  between   re/iudium  and   divortium  \^  osw'm^  to 
their  nicely:  the  first   they  make  the  breaking  off  the  contract,  oi 
espousal;  and   the  last  a  separation  after  actual  matrimony.     PI,, 
tarch  mentions  a  very  severe  law  of  Romulus,  which  suffered  not  u 
wife  to  leave  her  husband,  but  g^ave  a  man  the  liberty  of  turning  off 
his  wife,  either  upon  poisoning  her  children,  or  counterfeiting  hib 
private  keys,  or  for  the  crime  of  adultery.     But,  if  the  husband  on 
any  other  occasion  put  her  away,  he  ordered  one  moiety  of  his  estate 
to  be  ^nven  to  the  wife,  and  the  other  to  fall   to  the  j^oddess  Ceres; 
and   that  whosoever  sent  away  his  wife,  should  make  an  alonemcir 
to   the   -ods  of  ti)c   earth.-     It  is  very  remarkable,  that  almost  six 
hundred  years  after  the  building  of  the  city,  one  P.   Servilius,  o: 
Carvilius  Spurius,  was  the  first  of  the   Romans  that  ever  put  awa^ 
his  wife." 

The  common  way  of  divorcing  was  by  sending  a  bill  to  the  mo 
man,  coniaining  reasons  of  the  separation,  and  the  tender  of  all  he 
g..ods   which   she  brought    with   her:  this  they  termed  refiudUu, 
mitten-.     Or  else  it  was  performed  in  her  presence  before  sufficicir 

witnesses,  with  ih€  formalities  of  tearing  the  writings,  refunding  d) 
portion,  taking  away  the  keys,  and  turning  the  woman  out  of  door. 
Jiui  however  the  law  of  Romulus  came  to  fail,  it  is  certain  that  u. 
later  lim--  h..  nomen  too,  as  well  as  the  men,  might  sue  a  divorc 
and  ente;  uii  a  separate  life.     Thus  Juvenal,  Sat.  9.  74. 
FuEi-ie7Ucm  Siepe  ftuellam 

Amf^lfru  rapid  ;  tahvlas  ^uoqne/rc^erat,  et  jam 
Siifjiabat. 

And  Martial,  Lib.  10.  i,i)igr.  4i: 

Meu^  novo  Mini  vetercm  Proctdeia  wavitvvi 
Dcaevis^  atijue  Jubts  res  sibi  habere  eita.^ 

Wc  have  here  a  fair  opportunity  to  enquire  mio  the  grounds  of  ih. 
common  opinion  about  borrowing  and  lending  of  wives  among  the 
Romans.  He  that  chargeiii  them  most  severely  with  this  practice 
iS  the  most  learned  Tertullian,  in  his  Apology,  ch.  39.     '  Omnia  in 

="  Flutaich.  in  Romul. 

"  Valor.  Max.  lib.  2.  cap.  ].   Plut.  Compar.  Komul.  et  Thcs.  et  Horn.  Uu.  J3. 


or  THE  ROMANS. 


319 


iliscreta  sunt  apud  nos,  he'  *  All  things  (says  he,  speaking  of  the 
christians)  are  common  among  us»  except  our  wives  :  We  admit  no 
partnership  in  that  one  thing,  in  w  hich  other  men  are  more  profess- 
rtilv  partners,  who  not  only  make  use  of  their  friend's  bed,  but  very 
patiently  expose  their  own  wives  to  a  new  embrace:  I  suppose  ac- 
cording to  the  institution  of  the  most  wise  ancients,  the  (irecian  So- 
raics,  and  the  Roman  Calo,  who  freely  lent  out  their  wives  to  iheir 
friends  !'  And  presently  after, '  O  sapieniiae  Attic?e  et  Romanje  gra- 
vitatis  exeniplum  I  leno  est  philosophus  et  censor.'  ^  *  O  wondrous 
example  of  Attic  wisdom  and  Roman  gravity  I  a  philosopher  and  a 
rensor  turn  a  pair  ol  pimps.' 

Chiefly  on  the  strength  of  Tnis  authority,  the  Roi^jans  have  been 
krenerally  taxed  with  such  a  custom  ;  and  a  very  great  man  of  our. 
own  country"  expresseth  his  compliance  with  the  vulgar  opinion, 
•hough  he  ingeniously  extenuates  the  fault  in  a  parallel  instance.  So 
aiuch  indeed  must  be  granted,  that  though  the  law  made  those  hus- 
bands liable  to  a  penalty  w  ho  either  hired  out  their  wives  for  money, 
or  kept  them  after  they  had  been  actually  convicted  of  adultery,  yet 
the  bare  permission  of  that  crime  did  not  fall  under  the  notice  of  the 
rivil  power.  And  Ulpian  says  expressly,  '  ei  qui  patitur  uxorcni 
5uamdelinquere,matrimoniumquesuumcontemnii,quiquecontaini- 
natione  non  indignatur,  poena  adultcratorum  non  iniligitur.'  '  He 
that  suffers  his  wife  to  defile  his  bed,  and  contemning  his  matrimo- 
nial contract  is  not  displeased  at  the  pollution,  does  not  incur  the 
penalty  of  adulterers.'  But  it  is  almost  impossible  that  this  should 
give  occasion  to  such  a  fancy,  being  no  more  than  what  is  tolerated 
at  present.  It  may  therefore  be  alleged  in  favour  of  the  Romans, 
that  this  opinion  might  probably  have  its  rise  from  the  frequent 
practice  of  that  sort  of  marriage,  according  to  which  a  woman  was 
made  a  wife  only  by  possession  and  use,  without  any  farther  cere- 
mony. This  was  the  most  incomplete  of  all  conjugal  ties;  the  wife 
')cing  so,  rather  by  the  law  of  nature,  than  according  to  the  Roman 
constitution;  and  therefore  she  was  not  called  Mater-familias^  nor 
had  any  right  to  inherit  the  goods  of  her  husband  ;  being  supposed 
to  be  taken  purely  on  the  account  of  procreating  issue.  So  that  after 
the  bearing  of  three  or  four  children,  she  might  lawfully  be  given 

to  another  man. 

As  to  the  example  of  Calo  (not  to  urge  that  Tertullian  has  mistaken 
the  censor  for  him  of  Utica,and  so  lost  the  sting  of  his  sarcasm)  the 
best  accounts  of  that  matter  may  be  had  from  Strabo  and  Plutarch. 
The  place  of  Strabo  is  in  his  7th  book.  'Wf^^HTi  rfxt^tTu^Ttx^TtC^m'in 

'  Sir  William  Temple's  Introduction  to  the  Hist,  of  England 


'»20 


IHE  MARRIAGES,  ScC 


OF  THF   noMAVR 


X 


ot  these  lapynans,  that  it  is  counted  lawful  amonj,^  them  to  trive 
away  their  wives  u>  other  men,  after  they  have  had  two  or  thre^ 
children  by  them  :  As  Cato  in  our  time,  upon  the  recjuest  of  llorten 
sius,  .qave  him  his  wife  Marcia,  accordin^^  to  the  ohl  custom  of  tht 
Romans.'  Here  by  ^kMovu^  and  i^^cK,  we  should  not  undcrstam' 
the  lending  or  letting  out  of  xvoinen,  hut  th«^  marrying  them  to  ncu 
husbands,  as  Plato  useth  iyJor^v  i^vyxr^^m  rath,  to  bestow  daughic. 
in  marriage. 

Plutarch  before  he  proceeds  to  ]..  .  iUaU-M,,  has  premised  that  this 
passage,  in  the  life  of  Cato,  looks  like  a  fable  in  a  play,  and  is  very 
difiicult  to  be  cleared,  or  n.ade  out  with  any  ccrtaintv.  His  narration 
IS  taken  out  of  Tharseas,  who  had  it  frotn  Munatius,  Cato's  frirnr' 
and  constant  comj)anion,  and  runs  to  this  cfTect  : 

"  Quintus  Ilorlensius,  a  man  of  signal  worth,  and  aj)proved  vuuu, 
was  not  content  to  liv.-  in   friendship  add  familiarity  with  Cato,  bu' 
desired  also  to  be  united  to  his  Icunily,  by  some  alliance  in  marria'M 
1  herelore  waiting  upon   Cato,  he  began  to  make  a  proposal  abo, 
taking  Cato's  daughter  Porcia  from   IJibulus,  to  whom  .^he  had  al- 
ready borne  three  children,  and  making  her  his  own  wife  ;  ofVcring  t 
restore  her  after  she  had  bo.  ne  him  a  child,  if  Bibulus  was  not  wilHng 
to  part  with  her  altogether ;  adding,  that  though  this,  in  the  opinion 
of  men,  might  seem  strange,  yet  in  nature  it  would  appear  honest 
and  profitable  to  the  public;  with  much  more  to  the  same  purpose 
Cato  could    not  but  express  his  wonder  at  the  strange  project,  bin 
withal  approved  very  well  of  uniting  their  houses  ;  when  Plortensius. 
turning  the  discourse,  did  not  stick  to  acknowledge,  that  it  wa< 
Cato's  own  wife  which  he  really  desired.  Cato,  perceiving  his  earnest 
inclinations,  did  not  deny  his  request,  but  said  that  Philip,  being  the 
father  ol  Marcia,  ought  also  to  be  consulted.    Philip,  being  sent  for, 
came,  and  finding  they  were  all  agreed,  gave  his  daughter  Marcia 
to  irortensius,  in  the  presence  of  Cato,  who  himself  also  assisted  ai 
the  marriage." 

So  that  this  was  nothing  like  lending  a  wife  out,  but  actually  mai- 
rying  her  to  another  while  her  first  husband  was  alive ,  to  whom  she 
might  be  supposed  to  have  come  by  that  kind  of  matrimony,  which 
1^  iounded  on  the  right  of  possession.  And  upon  the  whole  the  Ro- 
mans seem  to  have  been  hiilierto  unjustly  taxed  with  the  allowance 
ol  a  custom  not  usually  practised  among  the  most  barbarous  and 
savage  part  of  mankind 


521 


CHAP.  X. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  FUNERALS. 


I  11  L  mo>>t  ancient  aud  generally  received  ways  of  burying  have 

)ecn  interring  and  burning;  and  both  these  we  find  at  the  same  time 

n  use  among  the  Romans,  borrowed  in  all  probability,  from  the  Gre- 

lans.  That  the  Grecians  interred  their  dead  bodies,  may,  in  short, 

'  evinced  from  the  story  of  the  Ephesian  matron  in  Petronius,  who 

^  descried  sitting  and  watching  her  husband's  body  laid  in  a  vault : 

.nd  from  the  argument  which  Solon  brought  to  justify  the  right  of 

he  Athenians  to  the  isle  of  Salamis,  taken  from  the  dead  bodies  that 

ere  buried  there,  not  after  the  manner  of  their  competitors  the  Me- 

:arensians,  but  according  to  the  Athenian  fashion ;  for  the  Megaren- 

lans  turned  the  carcase  to  the  east,  and  the  Athenians  to  the  west; 

*nd  that  the  Athenians  had  a  distinct  sepulchre  for  each  body, 

vliereas  the  Megarensians  put  two  or  three  into  one.F  That  the  same 

topic  sometimes  burnt  their  dead  is  beyond  dispute,  from  the  tes- 

mony  of  Plutarch,  who,  speaking  of  the  death  of  Phocion,  tells  us, 

nat  for  some  time  none  of  the  Athenians  dared  light  a  funeral  pile 

J  burn  the  body  after  their  manner.     As  also  from  the  description 

S  the  plague  of  Athens  in  Thucydides,  tVi  'xv^k<;  yxp  uXmt^U^,  Sec. 

:lh  the  translation  of  which  passage  Lucretius  concludes  his  poem : 

A''amqne  suos  consan^uineos  aliena  rogorum 
Insuper  exstructa  ing^nti  clamove  locabant^ 
Subdthantqxie  faces,  multo  cum  sangvine  s<epe 
Hixavtes  potius  quam  corpora  desererentur. 

To  prove  that  both  these  ways  of  burial  were  used  by  the  Romans, 

almost  unnecessary ;  for  burning  is  known  by  every  one  to  have 

ecn  their  common  practice.  And  as  for  interring,  their  great  lavv- 

•ver  Numa  particularly  forbade  the  burning  of  his  own  body,  but 

^mmanded  it  to  be  laid  entire  in  a  stone-coffin.^  And  we  learn  from 

^^icero,*"  and  Pliny,»  that  the  family  of  the  Corneiii  interred  their 

'tad  all  along,  till  the  time  of  Sylla  the  dictator,  who  in  his  will  gave 

express  orders  to  have  his  body  burnt;  probably  to  avoid  the  in- 

'dignities  that  might  have  been  offered  it  after  burial  by  the  Marian 

taction,  in  return  for  the  violence  shown  by  Sylla's  soldiers  to  the. 

:onib  and  relics  of  Marius. 


?  Plutarch,  in  Solon. 
'  Idem,  in  Nuiu 


'  De  Leg.  lib.  2. 

*  N.  H.  lib.  7.  cap.  54 


tfif:  funerals 


OF  THE   ROMANS. 


323 


Jiu(  ilHJUti:h  burning  was  the  ordinary  custom,  yci  itj  some  n^r 
ticular  cases  it  was  |V)sitively  forbiflflcn,  and  looker!  on  as  \\  r 
highest  impiety.  1  Ims  infants,  who  died  before  the  l)rceflirr'  o' 
teeth,  wc?e  inc  losrd  Mnbnriit  \\\  the  r^ronnd:' 


— I  ,  ,  ,  ,j    ininiKtic     liltllllty 

Hf  minor  iimr  }f.:ri _^ 


•fiTVENAL.  Sat.  15. 


I  h(^  |il  u  <•  hCL  upai  I  U)\  the  irjterment  of  these  infants  was  calW' 
Hiifrirrundariiivi.  The  same  superstition  was  observed  in  refcrenr. 
to  petsons  who  had  been  struck  dead  with  b^htninj;."  l"oi  tf»ey  were 
never  burnt  a^ain,  but  after  a  ^leat  rleid  of  ceremony  performed  Iv 
the  Auspices,  and  tlie  sacrifice  <-•        '  m  f  re  either  put  into  il,c 

earth,  or  sometimes  !ef  nlone  to  lie  upon  luc  ground  where  they  ha'' 
iailen.  In  both  these  eases,  the  place  was  presently  inclosed  cithrr 
with  a  slone-wall,  or  stakes,  or  sometimes  only  with  a  rope,  havitirr 
the  name  of  IJidcntal,  from  the  A/V//"W6' or  sheep  that  was  oflVied 
Persius  uscth  Hidental  inr  the  person  thnf  !i:u!  come  t"  Hiisunhappv 
riul,  S.(t     ii      ••■■  : 

'f  ■■'■■  ■■  ■ -"  'f'r'-    .-"■   :  '     x^iue  hidt'titiif. 
For  they  rancud  that  m  iierever  a  ihunrlcr-bolt   fell,   the  gods  had* 
particular  desire  lo  have  the  jilace  sacred  to  their  worship  ;  and  there- 
fore, whether  the  man   had  been  killed  or  not.  thov  used  th^-  ^-.mf 
superstition  in  hallowing  the  ground  " 

Thesevrral  sorts  of  funerals  fall  under  the  common  heads  of  Fu 

nus  indicliviim  and  Funuf<  taciturn.   The  Funu.s  indictivuju  had  its 

namew/'  indicrndo,U'om  inviting,  because  on  such  occasions  there  was 

made  a  general  invitation  of  the  people  by  the  mouth  of  a  public 

crier.     'I'his  was  celebrated  with  extraordinary  splendour    •>  '  mag- 

nificenre,  ih,   ^^  .  pie  being  presented  with  public  shows,  unu  other 

common  diverlisements.   The  Funiifi  fiublicum,  which  \vc  meet  \vitli 

so  often,  may  be  someiimes  understood  as  entirely  the  same  witii  the 

hidictive  funeral,  and  sometimes  only  as  a  species  of  it.     It  is  the 

same,  when  it  denotes  all  the  s»atc  and  grandeur  of  the  more  noble 

funerals,  such  as  were   usually  kept  for  rich  and   great  men.     It  is 

only  a  species  of  the   indictivc  funeral,  when  cither  it  signifies  the 

proclaiming  of  a  vacation,  and  an  injunction  of  public  sorrow,  or  the 

defraying  the  charges  of  the  funeral  out  of  the  public  stock.  For  it 

is  probable  that,  at  both  these  solemnities,  a  general  invitation  Ma? 

made  by  the  crier;  yet  in  this  latter  it  was  done  by  order  of  th^  ... 

nate,  and  in  the  former  by  the  will  of  the  deceased  person,  or  the 

pleasure  of  his  heirs.     But  no  one  will  hence  conclude,  that  the 


'  N.  H.  lib.  r.  cap    16. 
u  Idem,  lih.  2    cap.  54. 


'  Ducicr  on  Horace,  Art.  Poet.  ver.  471 


.iitrals  ol  all  such  rich  men,  were  attended  with  the  formality  of 
vacufion,  and  an  order  for  public  grief.     For  this  was  accounted 
f,(.  greatest  honour  that  could   be  shown  to  the  relics  of  princes 
;.iselves  :   Thus  the  senate  decreed  ^ /lubiic  funeral  for  Syphax, 
„(!  the  once  great  king  of  Macedon,  who  both  died  in  pi  ison  under 
he  power  of  the  Homans.^    And  Suetonius  informs  us,  that  Tiberi- 
.„«  and  Viiellius,y  were  buried  with  the  same  state  ;   yet,  upon  ac- 
„inf  of  having  performed  any  signal  service  to  the  commonwealth, 
honour  was  often  conferred  on  private  men,  and  somr^imes  upon 
omen  too,  as  Dio  relates  of   Attia  the  mothe-    r.c  j,^,,       Cxsar;^ 
.lid  Xiphilin  of  Livia  •      No,   wa:.  this  custon*  peculiar  to  the  Ro^ 
,ans  ;  for  Lacrtius  reports  of  Democritus,  that  deceasing,  after  he 
lived  above  a  hundred  years,  he  was  honoured  with  z /luh/ic 
■  i.cial    And  Justin  tells  us,  that  the  inhabitants  of  Marseilles,  then 
.  r.recian  colony,  upon  the  news  of  Rome's  being  taken  by  the 
^rauls,  kept  a  /^udlic  funeral  to  tc  ^^  i^^  condolence  of  the  cala- 

There  ^f-ni  to  have  been  different  sorts  of/? ;//.//f  funerals  in  Rome, 
.  rordiiig  to  the  magistracies  or  other  honours  which  the  deceased 
ersons  had  borne;   as  the  Pratorium,  the  Cn^isulare,  the  Cen.r^ri- 
and  the   Triumphale.     The  two  last  were  by  much   the  most 
:f-^nificent,  which,  though  rr>r...,iy  distinguished,  yet  in  t  he  time  of 
•:  emperors  were  joined  m  une,  with  the  name  o{  Funu,  Ceneorium 
'v,  as  Tacitus  often  useth  the  phrase.   Nor  was  the  Censorian  fu- 
nl  confined  to  private  persons,  but  the  very  emperors  then^selves 
honoured  with  the  like  solemnity  after  their  deaths,  as  Taci- 
'  ports  of  Claudius/  and  Capitolinus  of  Pertinax. 
The  Funii,  Tnrinnn,  opposed  to  the  Indictive,  or  public  iuutV2^\. 
>' p'-  i-  a  i.iivaie  manner,  without  the  solemnization  of  sports, 
'it  pomp,  without  a  marshaller,  or  a  general  mvitation.  Thus 
c.-cca  de  Tranquil.  Anim.     *  Marti  natus  es  :  minus  molestiarurr. 
ibet  funus  tacitum.'     And  Ovid.  Trist.  I.  Eleg.  ;.  2.59  : 


Qiiocungve  OJtfncereo, 
Formaqiie  n-.m  *an'i 


aonaoant, 
at. 


'IS  is  the  same  tr...i  L^pituijau^  ran-.  i'u-nu.<i  vulgar e.M^htn  he  re 
•s,  that  Marcus  Antonius  was  so  extremely  kind  and  munificent. 
•0  allow  even  vulgar  funerals  to  be  lept  at  the  charge  of  the  pub- 
Propertius  calls  \K  fikbeium  funufi  : 


Plebei  pari'jt  funpri-i  cxr-rjui.F. 
'J^onius,  Fu    -  .  V  juLULuuc  : 


V:d.  Max.  hb.  5.  cap.  ?. 
^^V'75.  -Cap.  J. 


Adnnt 


Lib.  2.  El  i. 


\ 


'  Lib.  47. 
''  Lib.  43. 


*  In  Tiberio 
■  Annal.  15. 


324 


THE   FUNERALB 


OF  THE  ROMANS 


"J    4-^    ^' 


Tu  grentio  in  proavi  fumis  commune  locattim. 

And  Suetonius,  funua  translatitium^  when  he  informs  us  thai  IJri 
tannicus  was  buried  after  this  manner  by  Nero.** 

To  the  silent  funerals  may  be  referred  the  Funera  acerba^ov  un 
timely  obsequies  of  youths  and  children  ;  which  Juvenal  speaks  of 
Sat.  11.  44  : 

J^Ton  pnematuri  cineves,  nonfunus  acerbvm 
JLuwurice,  &c. 

\nd  Virgil,  Aia\.  6.  427: 

Iiifantumquc  animce  fentes  in  limine  prima  . 
Quos  didcis  vitit  exsorteay  et  ab  ubere  raptos^ 
JibstuUt  atra  dieSf  et  fnnere  mersit  acerbo. 

The  funeral  ceremonies  may  be  divided  into  such  as  were  usee 
to  persons  when  they  were  dying,  and  such  as  were  afterwards  per- 
formed to  the  dead  corpse. 

Wiien  all  hopes  of  life  were  now  given  over,  and  the  soul,  as  i 
were,  just  ready  to  lake  its  flight,   the   friends  and  nearest  relations 
of  the  dying  party  were  wont  to  kiss  him,  and  embrace  his  body  till 
he  expired.    Thus  Suetonius"  relates  that  Augustus  expired  in  the 
kisses  of  Livi  ^'  need  there  be  any  further  proof  of  a  custom, 

which  cver>  i)o;.)  i>  acquainted  with.  The  reason  of  it  is  not  so  well 
known  :    Most    probably,  ihey  thought   by  this  pious  act  to  receive 
into  their  own  bodies  the  soul  of  their  departing  friend.  Thus  Albi 
novanus  in  the  cj)iccdc  of  Livia  : 

So.tpitc  tr  iia'i''m  viori(n\  A''ero  ;  tu  mea  coridait 
Jjiimifia,    '  ■'  ripias  banc  nnimaui  ore  pio, 

T^'or  the  ancients  b<  litvcd  that  the  soul,  when  it  was  about  leaving 
the  body,  made  use  of  the  mouth  for  its  passage ;  whence  animaw 
in  jirimo  orc^  or  in  Jirinna  labria  tenere^  is  to  be  at  death's  door 
And  they  might  well  imagine  the  soul  was  thus  transfused  in  thf 
last  act  of  life,  who  could  fancy  that  it  was  communicated  in  an  or 
dinary  kiss,  as  we  find  they  did  from  these  love-verses,  recited  b^ 
Macrobius,  the  original  of  which  is  attributed  to  Plato  : 

Jhim  !>emihulco  suai'io 
Meum  pidliim  siinvoirf 
Jhdceynqve  Jlorein  spiritn.f 
Jhico  er  aperto  tramite^ 
Jinimo  tunc  le^rn  et  ftaricia 
Conrvr)-)t  ad  labia  mibi,  StcS 

Nor  did  they  only  kiss  their  friends,  when  just  expiring,  but  after 
wards  too,  when  the  body  was  going  to  be  laid  on  the  funeral  pile 
Thus  TibuUus,  Lib.  1.  Eleg.  1  : 


Flebis  et  arsuro posit um  mc^  DeliOy  lecto, 
Tnstibus  et  lucrymin  uscida  mixta  dabis. 

.Mid  Propertius,  Lib.  2.  Eleg.  12  : 

OscuUique  in  gelidis  poyies  siiprema  labelling 
Cum  dabitur  Syrio  munere  pleniis  onyx. 

Another  ceremony,  used  to  persons  expiring,  was  the  taking  oil 
Their  rings.  Thus  Suetonius  reports,  '  that  when  the  emperor  Tibe- 
rius swooned  away,  and  was  reputed  dead,  his  rings  were  taken  from 
him,  though  he  afterwards  recovered,  and  asked  for  them  again. ''^ 
riicy  are  much  mistaken,  who  fancy  him  to  have  done  this  with  de- 
sign to  change  his  heir;  for  though  it  was  an  usual  custom  with  the 
ancients  to  constitute  their  heir  or  successor,  by  delivering  him  their 

ings  on  their  death-bed,  yet  this  signified  nothing,  in  case  a  legal 
vill  was  produced  to  the  contrary. '» 

Hut  whether  they  took  oft*  the  rings  to  save  them  from  the  persons 

onccrned  in  washing  and  taking  care  of  the  dead  body,  or  on  any 
other  account,  it  is  very  probable  that  they  were  afterwards  restored 
attain  to  the  fingers,  and  burnt  in  the  funeral  pile,  as  may  be  ga- 
thered from  the  verse  of  Propertius,  where  describing  the  ghost  of 
his  mistress  in  the  habit  in  which  she  was  burned,  he  says, 

Et  soUtum  digito  beiylloti  redderat  i£^nif,\  Lib.  4.  El.  7. 

The  custom  of  closing  the  eyes  of  a  departing  friend,  common 
)oth  to  Romans  and  Grecians,  is  known  by  any  one  that  has  but 
looked  into  a  classic  author.  It  may  only  here  be  observed,  that 
this  ceremony  was  performed  for  the  most  part  by  the  nearest  rela- 
tion, as  by  husbands  to  their  wives,  and  by  wives  to  their  husbands, 
by  parents  to  their  children,  and  by  children  to  their  parents.  Sec.  of 
all  which  we  have  a  multitude  of  instances  in  the  poets.  Pliny  tells 
us  thai,  as  they  closed  the  eyes  of  the  dying  persons,  so  they  like- 
>rise  opened  them  again  when  the  body  was  laid  on  the  funeral  pile  : 
\nd  his  reason  for  both  customs  is, '  ui  ncque  ab  homiiie  supremum 
bpcctari  fas  sit,  et  coelo  non  osiendi  nefas;''  ^  because  they  count- 
ed equally  impious,  that  the  eyes  should  be  seen  by  men  at  their 
last  motion,  or  that  they  should  not  be  exposed  to  the  view  of 
heaven.' 

As  for  the  ceremonies  used  to  persons  after  they  were  dead,  they 
n>ay  be  divided  into  three  sorts,  such  as  were  performed  before  the 
burial,  such  as  concerned  the  act  of  the  funeral,  and  such  as  were 
done  after  that  solemnity. 

Before  the  burial,  we  meet  with  the  customs  of  washing  and 
anointing  the  corpse,  not  by  any  means  proper  to  the  Romans,  but 


^  Ner.  33. 


August.  91 


Macrob.  Saturn,  lib.  2.  cap.  2 


^Cap.r.'^ 


-'  Vklcr,  Max.  lib.  7.  cap.  8. 
43 


»  Lib.  11 


.326 


TH£   FUNERALS 


anciently  used  by  almost  all  the  civilized  parts  of  the  world,  owin  > 
their  firs!  rise  to  the  invention  of  the  Kj^-ypiians.  These  offices  in 
Uon)e  were  either  performed  by  the  women  whom  they  ievmitil  fune^ 
rv<£  ;  or  else  in  richer  or  nobler  families  by  the  i./7»;Y?>2ar//,  a  society 
of  men  who  got  their  livelihood  by  preparing  things  in  order  to  ihc 
solemnization  of  funcrah.  I'hcy  had  their  names  from  Libit  ma,  ihi 
goddess  who  presided  over  obsequies.  Hence  the  word  JJditma  is 
conmir>nly  used  for  death  itself;  or  for  every  thing  in  general  relating, 
to  the  futierals,  because,  in  the  temple  of  that  goddess,  all  necessa- 
ries proper  on  such  occasions  were  exi)Osed  to  sale.  Phitdrus  alludf. 
to  this  custom,  speaking  of  a  covetous  miser,  Lib.  5.  Fab.  77: 

Qui  cirnimcidfft  omnem  impmstim  Funevis, 
Libitina  ne  g^iid  de  tun  f'ariaf  htcrnm. 

But  to  return  to  the  Ltb.i.^.u,  u,  lucy  seem  to  have  been  the  chief 
persons  concerned  in  ordering  funerals,  undertaking  the  whole  care 
and  charge  of  such  solemnity  at  a  set  price  ;  and  therefore  they  kept 
a  great  number  of  servants  to  perform  the  working  part,  such  as  the 
Pollinaorcs,  the  Ves/iiUoncs,  &c.  The  first  of  these  were  employed 
to  anoint  the  dead  body,  and  the  others  we  may  chance  to  meet  with 
hereafter.  In  allusion  to  this  custom  of  anointing  the  corpse,  Mar- 
tial, iii.  12.  plays  vciy  genteelly  on  the  master  of  an  entertainment, 
where  there  was  much  essence  to  be  got,  but  very  little  meat: 

U})gnentiimfateor  honum  dediati 
Convivisy  here  ;  sed  niliil  scitlisti. 
Rtf  ndlsa  est  bene  olen-  et  esurire. 
Qui  non  ca/iat,  et  ntig'itur,  Fabulle, 
Js  rere  miJn  viortuus  ridetur. 

When  the  body  had  been  washed  and  anointed,  they  proceeded  to 
wrap  it  in  a  garment ;  the  ordinary  people  for  this  purpose  made  use 
of  the  conmion  gown,  and  though  in  some  parts  of  Italy  the  inhabi- 
tants were  so  rude  as  not  to  wear  the  gown  while  they  lived,  yet  Ju- 
venal informs  us  that  they  did  not  want  it  at  their  death  : 

Pars  magna  liali.e  eat,  si  vennn  admittimus,  in  qua 
.A'cwo  togam  sionit  nisi  mortmis. Sat.  3.  171. 

But  those  who  had  borne  any  public  office  in  the  state,  or  acquired 
any  honour  in  war,  were  after  their  death  wrapped  in  the  particular 
garment  which  belonged  to  their  place,  or  to  their  triumph;  as 
Livy'  and  Polybius"*  expressly  report.  It  may  here  be  observed, 
that  the  imcicnts  were  so  very  careful  and  superstitious,  in  refer- 
ence to  their  funeral  gowns,  that  they  often  wove  them  for  them, 
selves  and  their  friends  during  life.  Thus  Virgil  brings  in  th. 
mother  of  Euryalus  complaining, 


OF  THE  ROMANS. 


•JVec  tCf  tuafuneva,  mater. 


327 


Produxi,  presdve  ocidosy  nee  vulnera  lavi, 

Vesti  teiceyiSy  tibi  quum  noctesfestina  diesque 

Urgcbam,  et  tela  euros  solabar  aniles.  JEx.  ix.  486. 

If  the  deceased  had  by  his  valour  obtained  any  of  the  honoura])lc 
^oronets,  it  was  always  put  on  his  head,  when  the  body  was  dressed 
for  the  funeral;  that  the  reward  of  virtue  might  in  some  measure  be 
enjoy ^u  after  death,  as  Cicero  observes  in  his  second  book  of  laws. 
Other  persons  they  crowned  with  chaplels  of  flow  ers,  and  with  those 
too  adorned  the  couch  on  which  the  body  was  laid.  The  primitive 
Christians  inveighed  severely  against  this  custom,  as  little  less  than 
idolatry,  as  is  to  be  seen  particularly  in  Minutius  Felix'  and  Ter- 
luUian.m 

The  next  ceremony  that  followed  was  the  collocatio,  or  laying  out 
of  the  body,  performed  always  by  the  nearest  relation  :  Whence  Dio 
censures  Tiberius  for  his  neglect  of  Livia,  are  voc-htxv  i'rscKi-^xro^  are 
uTifixvao-xv  «oTo<;7r^oi0£'lo.  '*  He  neither  visited  her  when  she  was  sick, 
nor  laid  her  out  with  his  own  hands  after  she  was  dead." 

The  place  where  they  lay  the  body  was  always  near  the  threshold. 
at  the  entrance  of  the  house  : 


'recipitque  ad  limina  gressum, 


Corpus  vbi  exanimi  positum  Pallantis  Accetes 

Servabat  senior. Vino.  iEw.  xi.  29. 

And  they  took  particular  care  in  placing  the  body,  to  turn  the  feet 
outward,  toward  the  gate,  which  custom  Persius  has  left  us  elegantly 
described  in  his  third  Satire,  103  : 


'tandemque  beatulus  alto 


Compositus  lectOf  crassisque  lutatas  amomis. 
In  portam  rigidos  calces  ej  tendit. 

The  reason  of  this  position  was  to  show  all  persons,  whether  any 
violence  had  been  the  cause  of  the  party's  death,  which  might  be 
discovered  by  the  outward  signs. 

We  must  not  forget  the  conclamatiOy  or  general  outcry  set  up  at 

such  intervals  before  the   corpse,  by  persons  who  waited  there  on 

purpose;  this  was  done,  either  because  they  hoped  by  this  meanjj 

to  stop  the  soul,  which  was  now  taking  its  flight,  or  else  to  awaken 

its  powers,  which   they  thought  might  only  lie  silent  in  the  body 

without  action.  For  the  first  reason  we  are  beholden  to  Propertius, 

iv.  7  : 

At  mihi  non  oculos  quisquam  inclamavit  euntes, 
Unwn  impetrassetn  ie  rr-Hjcante  diem. 

The  other  is  taken  from  the  explication  of  this  custom  by  ServiuSj 
rtn  the  sixth  of  the  iEncids,  and  seems  much  the  more  probable 


'  Lib.  34. 


»•  Lib.  6. 


Octav.  pag.  109.  Fdit.  Oxon. 


">  T)r  Corona  Mil, 


J2H 


IHE  FUNERALS 


f 


OF  THE   ROMANS. 


52*? 


design,  lor  the  physicians  ir'r  r  -f-rral  instances  of  persons,  who 
beintj  buried  through  haste,  in  an  apoplectic  fit,  have  afterward', 
come  to  themselves, and  many  times  miseiably  perished  for  uanto) 
assistance. 

If  all  this  crying  out  signified  nothing,  the  deceased  was  said  to 
be  conclujnatus^  or  past  call,  to  which  practice  there  are  frecpicn' 
allusions  in  almost  every  author.  Lucan  is  very  elegant  to  this  pm 
pose,  Lib.  2  : 

Sicfimere  prhnn 


/tttniiide  taciierc  domunj  qmnn  corftnra  iioiuhnn 
Cojichimata  Jacenty  nee  malrr  crine  aohttn 

E.rl'j-it  (1(1  ^,CT'j-  fdnvifnrinn  h^dchiu  phinctiis. 

'I'heic  i^>  acaiL-c  all)  ccicinuny  rtiiiaining  which  was  performed 
before  th(;  burial,  except  the  custom  of  sticking  up  some  sign,  bv 
which  the  house  was  known  to  be  in  mourning.  This  among  the 
Romans  w  as  done  by  fixing  branches  of  cypress,  or  of  the  pitch-tic( 
near  the  entrance,  neither  of  which  trees  being  once  cut  down  cvti 
revive,  and  have  (mi  that  account  been  thought  proper  emblems  of 
a  funeral." 

Thus  much  was  tlone  before  the  funeral.  In  the  funeral  we  mav 
take  notice  of  the  clatio^  or  carrying  forth,  and  the  act  of  burial. 
What  concerns  the  first  of  these,  will  be  made  out  in  observing  the 
day,  the  time,  the  ])ersons,  and  the  place.  What  day  after  the  per- 
son's death  was  appointed  for  the  funeral,  is  not  very  well  agreed  on 
Servius,  on  that  passage  of  V'irgil,  ^n.  '    verse  65, 

PviftevtUy  si  noim  lUen  m(jrtalibus  iC§-n>,  &c. 
expressly  tells  us,  that  *  the  body  lay  seven  days  in  the  house,  on 
the  eighth  day  was  burned,  and  on  the  ninth  the  relics  were  buried.' 
But  there  are  many  instances  to  prove  that  this  set  number  of  days 
was  not  always  observed.  Therefore  perhaps  this  belonged  only  to 
the  indictive  and  public  funerals,  anil  not  to  the  private  and  silent, 
especially  not  to  the  actrbu  funera^  in  which  things  were  always 
huddled  up  with  wonderful  haste.  Thus  Suetonius  reports  of  the 
funeral  of  Britannicus,"  and  of  the  emperor  Otho  :»»  And  Cicero 
firo  Cluentio, '  Eo  ipso  die  puer  cum  bora  undecima  in  publico  cl 
valens  visus  esset,  ante  noctem  mortuus,  et  postridie  ante  lucent 
cond)Uslus.' 

As  to  the  time  of  carrying  forth  the  corpse,  anciently  they  made 
use  only  of  the  night ;  as  Servius  observes  on  those  words  of  Virgil 


■J)c  inoi  c    L  tills  to 


Funereas  rafnurc  faces. 

^  Plin.  lib.  16.  cap.  33,    Soiv.  ad  JEn,  4 
•  Ner,  32. 


iEx.  11.  V.  142, 


P  Otho,  81 


The  reason  he  gives  for  it  is,  that  hereby  they  might  avoid  meet- 

;ig  with  the  magistrates  or  priests,  whose  eyes  they  thought  would 

')c  defiled  by  such  a  spectacle.     Hence  the  funeral  had  its  name 

:  finialibus,  from  the  torches;  and  the  ves/iilloncs,  or  vesfierones, 

were  so  called,  from  vcsfier^  the  evening. 

Nothing  is  more  evident,  than  that  this  custom  was  not  long  ob- 
served, at  least  not  in  the  public  funerals,  though   it  seems  to  have 
oniinued  in  the  silent  and  private,  as  Servius  acquaints  us  in  the 
,ame  place.      Hence  Nero  took  a  fair  excuse  for  hurrying  his  bro- 
hcr  Britannicus's  body  into  the  grave,  immediately  after  he  had 
.cnt  him  out  of  the  world.     For  Tacitus  reports  that  the  emperor 
Jcfended  the  hasty  burial  which  had  caused  so  much  talk  and  sus- 
)icion,  in  a  public  edict,  urging  that  it  was  agreeable  to  the  old  in- 
titutions,  to  hide  such  untimely  funerals  from  men's  eyes,  as  soon 
s  possible,  and  not  detain  them  with  the  tedious  formalities  of  ha- 
.angues,  and  pompous  processions.     It  may  not  be  too  nice  a  re- 
naik,  that  in  the  more  splendid  funerals,  the  former  part  of  the  day 
eems  to  have  been  designed  for  the  procession.     Thus  Plutarch 
elates  of  the  burial  of  Sylla,  that,  the  '  morning  being  very  cloudy 
vcr  head,  they  deferred  carrying  forth   the  corpse  till  the  ninth 
lour,'  or  three  in  the  afternoon.     But  though  this  custom  of  carry- 
rig  forth  the  corpse  by  night  in  a  great  measure  ceased,  yet  the 
scaring  of  torches  and  tapers  still  continued  in  practice.     Thus 
V'irgil,  in  the  funeral  of  Pallas,  iEn.  11.144: 


,t 


Lucet  xna  lonffo 


Orcline  Jiammarumf  et  late  discriminat  agros. 
\nd  Persius,  Sat.  3.  103: 

Hi7ic  tubOf  candeliX^  &c. 

And,  because  tapers  were  likewise  used  at  the  nuptial  solemnity, 
he  poets  did  not  fail  to  take  the  hint  for  bringing  them  both  into 
the  same  fancy.     As  Propertius,  Book  4.  Eleg.  last: 
Viximus  insig^nes  inter  utramgue  facem. 

And  Ovid,  in  the  Epistle  of  Cydippe  to  Acontius,  1 72 : 

Ety  face  pro  thalami,fax  mihi  mortis  erat. 

Among  the  persons  concerned  in  carrying  ftrth  the  corpse,  wt 
may  begin  with  those  that  went  before  the  funeral-bed,  such  as  the 
iiticines,  the  /ir^e/ica,  the  ludii,  and  histriones^  the  new  freed-men. 
the  bearers  of  the  images,  &c.  The  name  of  siticines,  A.  Gellius? 
derives  from  situs  and  cano,  from  singing  to  the  dead.  They 
^vere  of  two  sorts,  some  sounding  on  the  trumpet,  others  on  theflut^. 

1  Lib.  20.  cap.  2 


330 


UIL    FUNERALS 


OF  THE  ROMANS. 


ool 


or  pi|>c.      That  the  trumpets  had  a  share  in  this  solemnity,  wc  lean 
from  Virgil,  in  the  funeral  of  Pallas.  ^En.  1 1.  192  : 

Ej'oritur  clamorquf:  vitum  claniforque  tubarum. 

\n(l  from  Propertius,  Rook  J.  KIci'-   7: 

,  ///  'III      iiini  i^t/iu>-.\  til/!'-' ft  tiui^  CytithiUf  soynno^ 

'I  i/iiii,   fiiiit'Rtn  fyi-tinr  if'ii  luhii   ' 

\n(l  Pluiarcu  iciis  a  noiauic  siory  <>1  a  magpie,  that,  upon  heai 
ng  the  trumpets  at  the  funeral  of  a  rich  man,  for  some  time  aftc! 
«juilc  lost  her  voice,  and  could  raise  no  manner  of  note  ;  when  one. 
sudden,  as  if  she  had  been  all  this  while  deeply  meditating  on  the 
matter,  she  struck  up  exactly  the  same  tunes  that  the  trumpeter^ 
had  played,  and  hit  all  the  tunes  and  changes  to  admiration/ 

For  it  is  likely  that  the  trumpets  were  used  only  in  the  public 
t\incrals,  to  give  the  people  notice  to  appear  at  the  solemnity,  as 
Lipsius  instructs  us.« 

The    tihicines   some   restrain    to    the   funerals    of  children,  and 

vounger  persons,  as  Servius  observes  on  the  first  of  the  iEneids, aiid 

Statius,  Theh.  6.  in  the  funeral  of  Achemorus: 

7'r/wj  signnni  hictua  coniu  grave  7nugis  adiinco 
Tibiay  cui  teiieros  suetvm  pvoducerv  manes. 

The  learned  Dacicr  has  lately  declared  himself  of  the  same 
opinion/  But  it  is  certain  that  this  cannot  always  have  held  good 
For  Suetonius  mentions  the  tibix  in  the  funeral  of  Julius  Caesar," 
.ind  Seneca  in  that  of  Claudius,  in  his  ^fiorolocynthoais.  And  Ovi^ 
says  of  himself  in  plain  words, 

Interea  iwstri  quid  agant  nisi  tristr  libelU  ? 

Tibia  funei'ibns  cunvetiit  ista  meis.  Trist.  v.  Eleg^.  1. 

Therefore  it  seems  more  probable,  that  the  flutes  or  pipes  Mert 
nscd  in  all  sorts  of  funerals,  as  the  most  accurate  Kirchmaii  ha' 
given  his  judgment. 

It  appears  from   the  figures  of  trumpets  and  flutes  on  the  old 
monuments,  that  instruments  of  those   kinds,  used  at  funeral  so- 
lemnities, were  longer  than  the  ordinary  ones;  and  so  fitted  to  give 
A  sharper  and  more  mournful  sound.     Hence  Ovid  calls  the  fune 
ral  trumpet  /o/iifa  tuba  : 

Pru  lofiga  renonenf  ^a^mina  vestra  tuba  •  Amoh.  2.  El.  6.  6. 

After  the  musicians  went  \\\q;  firxjicxs  or  the  mourning  women, 
hired  on  purpose  to  sing  the  nxma  or  lensus^  the  funeral  song,  filled 
with  the  praises  of  the  deceased  ;  but  for  the  most  part  trifling  and 
mean.  Hence  the  grammarian  in  Gellius  took  his  flout  against  the 


philosophers,  <  Vos  philosophi  mera  estis  (ut  M.  Gate  ait)  mortu- 
aria  glossaria.  Namque  collegistis  et  lectitastis  res  tetras,  et  ina- 
r,es,  ct  frivolas,tanquam  mulierum  voces  prxficarum :''  '  You  phi- 
oso|)hers  (as  Caio  says)  are  mere  dealers  in  trash  ;  for  you  go  and 
(,llect  a  parcel  of  dry  worthless  stuff,  just  such,  for  all  the  world, 
.:.  old  women  whine  out,  who  are  hired  to  sing  the  mourning  song 
.t  a  funeral.' 

That  the  iLidi  and  /;/.9^r/o;jf.9,  the  mimics  and  players,  went  before 
be  funeral-bed,  and  danced  after  the  satiric  manner,  we  have  the 
.uihoruy  of  Dionysius  in  his  ninth  book.  Suetonius  tells  a  story  ol 
•he  arch-mmuc  who  acted  at  the  funeral  of  Vespasian.w 

The  custom  for  the  slaves  to  go  with  their  caps  on  before  the 
-orpse.  and  to  be  thereupon  made  free,  is  confirmed  by  a  law  ol 
Jubiiman,  and  we  meet  with  many  examples  of  it  in  history. 

As  to  the  beds  or  couches  borne  before,  in  the  funeral  solemnity, 

he  design  of  these  was  to  carry  the  waxen  images  of  the  deceased 

person's  ancestors;  which  were  therefore  used  only  in  the  funerals 

.f  those  who  had  theyi/6  ima^inum,  the  right  of  keeping  the  effigies 

f  the  men  of  their  family,  which  at  home  were  set  up  in  wooden 

presses,  and  taken  thence  to  be  publicly  shown  after  this  n,anncr,on 

^he   death   of  any   of  their  near  relations.*    Before  the  corpse  of 

princes,  or  some  extraordinary  persons,  not  only  the  effigies  of  their 

ncestors,  but  the  statues  too  of  other  great  men,  were  borne  in 

tate.     Thus  Augustus  ordered  six  hundred  beds  of  images  to  be 

arricd  before,  at  the  funeral  of  Marcellus;  and  Sylla  the  dictator 

1(1  no  less  than  six  thousand.y 

Besides  all  this,  such  as  had  been  eminent  for  their  achievements 

n  war,  and  gained  any  considerable  conquest,  had  the  images  and 

eprcsentations  of  the  enemies  they  had  subdued,  or  the  cities  they 

ad  taken,  or  the  spoils  won  in  battle;  as  Dionysius^  rei)orts  in  the 

•  ancral  of  Coriolanus,  and  Dio»  in  that  of  Augustus.     This  custom 

^  H'gil  alludes  to  in  the  funeral  of  Pallas,  ^n.  xi.  7^: 

Multaqne  prxterea  Laiirentis  praemia  pugna- 
Jlggerat^  et  tongo  pvxdam  jubet  ordine  dud. 

^nd  a  little  after: 

Indutosque  jubet  tnincos  hostilihus  armis        ^ 
Jpsosferre  duces,  initnicaquc  nominafgi. 

The  lictors  too  made  a  part  of  the  procession,  going  before  the 
^orpse  to  carry  ihc  fasces,  and  other  ensigns  of  honours  which  the 
'.eceased   had  a  right  to  in  his  lifetime.     It  is  very  remarkable,  tha^ 


»  Plut.  de  Aniinai.  Solert. 
»  Dc  Mihtia,  lib.  4.  cap.  10 


'  Horace,  Book  1.  Sat.  6.  v.  44. 

•^  Cap.  as. 


A.  Gell.  lib.  18.  cap.  7. 
'  Cap.  19. 

Plin.  N.  H.  lib.  25,  cap.  2. 


y  Serv'ius  in  Jf.n.  II 
'  Lib.  8. 
•  Lib.  56. 


33a 


THE   FUNERALS 


OV  THE  ROMANS. 


3ii3 


the  rods  were  not  now  carried  in  the  ordinary  posture,  but  turned 
quite  the  contrary  way,  as  Tacitus  reports,  in  the  funeral  of  Ger- 
nianicus.''     Hence  Albinovanus  in  the  funeral  of  Drusus: 

Quos  primum  vidi  fasces,  in  f unci  e  xidi, 
Et  vidi  versosy  indiciumque  mali. 

We  may  now  go  on  to  the  persons  who  bore  the  bier,  or  the  iu 
ncral-bed  ;  and  these  were  for  the  most  part  the  nearest  relations o- 
the  heirs  of  the  deceased.     Hence  Horace,  Book  2.  Sat.  5: 


Cada 


ver 


Unctiim  oleo  largo  nuiUs  humens  tulit  hceres. 

And  Juvenal,  Sat.  10.  158: 

Incolurni  'I'jojay  Priamus  venisset  ad  umbrap 
Aasaraci  magnis  solenyiibisy  Hectore  funus 
Portantey  et  reliquis  fratram  cervicibus 

Thus  they  report  of  Metellus  who  conquered  Macedon,  that  he 
was    arried  to  the  funeral  pile  by  his  four  sons;  one  of  which  was 
the   Praetor,  the  other  three  had  been   all  Consuls;  two  had  tri 
uinphrd,  end  one  performed  the  office  of  Censor.'' 

Sometimes  persons  who  had  deserved  highly  of  the  common 
wealth  were  l)orne  at  their  funerals  by  the  magistrates,  or  the  sena- 
tors, or  the  chief  of  the  nobility.  Thus  Plutarch  relates  of  Numa, 
^-i'lconius  of  Julius  Caesar;''  and  Tacitus  of  Augustus.*  And  the 
^  strangers  and  foreigners  that  happened  to  be  at  Rome  at  the 
Gv\  ..  of  any  worthy  person,  were  very  desirous  of  signifying  their 
respects  to  his  memory,  by  the  service  of  carrying  the  funeral-bed, 
when  he  was  to  be  buried ;  as  Plutarch  tells  us  in  the  funeral  oi 
Paulus  iEmclius,  that  as  many  Spaniards,  Ligurians,  and  Macedo- 
nians, as  happened  to  be  present  at  the  solemnity,  that  were  young 
and  of  vigorous  bodies,  took  up  the  bed,  and  bore  it  to  the  pile. 

Persons  of  meaner  fortunes,  and  sometimes  great  men  too,  if  they 
were  hated  by  the  people,  were  carried  to  their  burial  by  the  vesfiil- 
loves^  or  by  aandafiiUoneti^  who  lived  by  this  employment.  Thus 
Suetonius*  and  Euiropius*^  relate  of  the  emperor  Domitian.  There 
fore  in  this  last  way  of  bearing  out,  we  may  suppose  them  to  have 
\ised  the  .sandafiila  or  common  bier,  as  in  the  former  the  lecticx  or 
Ifcti^  the  litters  or^cds.  This  bier  is  what  Horace  and  Lucan  call 
vilis  urea  : 


A7igustis  eject  a  cadavara  cellis 


Consein.'iift  vili  portando  locabat  in  area. 

Da  vilem  JMagno  plebeii  funens  arcam, 
Qu(C  laccnim  corpus  siccos  effundat  in  ignes. 

It  is  worth  observing,  that  sometimes  the  bed  or  bier  was  coveretl 


lion.  L.  1.  Sat.  8. 
Luc.  L.  8, 


*  Annal.  3.  •  Cap.  84.  '  Annal.  1 

•  Plin.  HI).  7.  cap.  44.     Val.  Max.  hb.  7  •  Cap.  IT.  ^  Lib.  7- 


,.iU  soit^etimes  not.  It  was  exposed  often,  if  the  party  had  died  a 
■latural  death,  and  was  not  very  much  deformed  by  the  change;  and 
therefore  now  and  then  they  used  to  paint  the  face,  especially  of 
vomcn,  to  make  them  appear  with  more  advantage  to  the  sight. 
Die  tells  us  in  the  life  of  Nero,  that  he  daubed  the  body  of  Britan- 
iiicus  over  with  a  sort  of  white-wash,  to  hinder  the  blucness  of  the 
ilc'sh,  and  such  other  marks  of  the  poison,  from  being  discovered  ; 
but  a  great  rain  falling  at  the  time  of  the  procession,  washed  off 
!he  paint,  and  exposed  the  fatal  tokens  to  the  view  of  the  whole 
ncoplc. 

But  in  case  the  visage  was  very  much  distorted,  or  upon  some  other 
iccount  not  fit  to  be  shown,  they  threw  a  covering  over  the  bed. 
riius  Paterculus  reports  that  Scipio  Africanus  was  carried  forth  to 
•he  burial  -oclato  cajiitc.h  Sometimes  loo,  when  the  tuce  or  the  head 
Kid  been  miserably  bruised,  (as  if  the  fall  of  a  house,  or  some  such 
ccidcnt,  had  occasioned  the  parly's  death,)  they  used  to  enclose 
he  head  and  face  in  a  masque,  to  hinder  them  from  appearing;  and 
he  funerals  in  which  this  was  practised,  they  termed  larvatafiincra. 
But  the  greatest  part  of  the  persons  were  those  that  followed  the 
torpsc.     These  in  private  funerals  were  seldom  many  besides  the 
friends  and  relations  of  the  deceased;  and  it  was  very  usual  in  a 
viil,  to  bestow  legacies  upon  such  and  such  persons,  upon  condition 
they  should  appear  at  the  funeral,  and  accompany  the  corpse.    But 
it  the  indictive  or  public  funerals,  the  whole  city  flocked  together 
ipon  the  general  invitation  and  summons.     The  magistrates  and 
enators  were  not  wanting  at  the  procession,  nor  even  the  priests 
•hcinselves,  as  we  find  in  the  funeral  of  Numa,  described  by  PIu- 
arch. 

To  give  an  account  of  the  habit  and  gestures  of  the  mourners,  or 
of  the  relations  and  others  that  followed  the  corpse,  is  in  a  great 
neasure  unnecessary ;  for  the  weeping,  the  bitier  complaints  against 
.'le  gods,  the  letting  loose  the  hair,  or  sometimes  cutting  it  off,  the 
hanging  the  habit,  and  the  laying  aside  the  usual  ornaments,  are  all 
too  well  known  to  need  any  explication.  Yet  there  are  many  things 
singular  in  these  subjects  which  deserve  our  farther  notice.    Thus, 
they  did  not  only  tear  or  cut  off  their  hair,  but  had  a  custom  to  lay- 
it  on  the  breast,  or  sometimes  on  the  tomb  of  the  deceased  friend. 
Hence  Ovid  of  the  sisters  of  Narcissus  : 


Planxere  s  or  ores 


J\'(ud(jSf  et  sectos  fratri  imposuere  capillo'^. 


fc  Lib.  2. 

44 


534 


THE   FL^NERALi; 


OF  THE   ROMANS 


135 


And  Statius,  Theb.  r  : 


.it  hiCy  si  Jflaufftrn  diicentHy 


•  Tergoqne  et  pcctore  fusaiu 
Copsntirm ffivo  minnitf  sectifujuc Jnceiitin 
Ohnubit  tennia  ova  comis. 

it  is  no  less  obsei  vablc,  tliat  at  the  funcrali  of  their  parents,  liu 
•jOns  were  covered  on  their  heads,  and  the  daughters  uncovcicc] . 
perhaps  only  to  recede  as  far  as  possible  from  their  ordinary  habit 
Yet  it  is  likely  that,  in  ordcrint^  the  sons  to  cover  their  heads  at  such 
solemnities,  they  had  rcp;aid  to  the  common  practice  of  always  wear- 
ing sumcthini^  on  their  heads  when  they  worshipj)C{l  the  gods,  anc' 
especially  when  they  were  present  at  a  sacrifice.  The  original  anci 
grounds  of  this  superstition  arc  most  admiral)ly  given  by  Virgil,  m 
♦he  prophet  Helenus's  iiistrurtions  lo  ybLneas  : 

Quiri  tibi  transmisitx  fsteterint  trans  ,rqunra  cl^tssc?, 

Kt  ftos-ifis  arif!,  jam  I'oia  in  littorr  yolvra^ 

J*uvJtureo  i^efnre  comaa  adofiertns  amivtu^ 

»\V  qua  inter  snncto.s  iqnes  in  /tonorr  decorniv 

Hoai ilia  fades  occurraf,  et  otnnia  ttnbet. 

JIunc  socii  morem  sacroruWf  hunc  i/tse  tefieiu 

Hue  casti  mmieant  in  rvlij^ione  nepotee.  JEs.  3.  403, 

As  to  the  mourning  habits,  it  has  been  already  observed,'  that  tlu 
senators  sometimes  on  these  occasions  went  attired  like  knights,  tlit 
magistrates  like  senators,  Sec.  and  that  the  common  wear  for  mourn 
jng  was  black.     lUit  v.e  may  farther  remark,  that  though  this  wab 
the  ordinary  colour  to  express  their  grief,  used  alike  by  both  sexes, 
yet  after  the  establishment  of  the  empire,  when  abundance  of  party 
colours  came  in  fashion,  the  old  primitive  white  grew  so  much  intt 
contemj)t,  that  at  last  it  became  proper  to  the  women  for  their  mourn 
ing  clothes.     Thus  Statius  in  the  tears  of  lletruscus  : 

Jfifc  vittafa  comam  viveoque  insignis  amictv 
AUtihus  extquiis  adrc. 

And  though  it  niay  with  some  reason  be  thought  that  the  poC 
here,  directing  his  speech  to  the  goddess  Piety,  gives  her  that  habit, 
rather  as  a  mark  of  purity  and  innocence,  than  as  the  proper  badge 
of  grief  in  her  sex;  yet  the  matter  of  fact  is  still  evident  from  the 
authority  of  Plutarch;  who  states  this  as  the  subject  of  one  of  hi;^ 
problems,  and  gives  several  reasons  for  the  practice. 

After  the  Persons  follov.s  the  Place  whither  the  procession  wai 
directed,  by  which  we  must  be  guided  in  our  next  enquiry.  In  all 
the  funerals  of  note,  especially  in  the  public  or  indictive,  the  corpse 
was  brought  with  a  vast  train  of  followers  into  the  I'orum.  Thus  Ho- 
race, Book  1.  Sat.  6  ; 

^  Ijook  5.  cap.  r 


Con^cvi^antque  foro  tria  funcrii^  mai^nn  noiudut 
CorniKi  quod  vincutqnc  tulnis.  •  ■ 

Here  one  of  the  nearest  relations  ascended  the  rostra,  and  obliged 
the  audience  with  an  oration  in  praise  of  the  deceased.  If  nunc  ot 
the  kindred  undertook  the  ofiice,  it  was  discharged  by  some  of  the 
most  eminent  persons  in  the  city  for  learning  and  eloquence,  as  Ap- 
pian  reports  of  the  funeral  of  Sylla.J  And  Pliny  the  younger  reckons 
ii  as  the  last  addition  to  the  happiness  of  a  very  great  man,  that  he 
had  the  honour  to  be  praised  at  his  funeral  by  the  most  eloquent  Ta- 
citus, then  Consul  ;k  which  is  agreeable  to  Quintilian's  account  of  this 
matter,  .Yam.  etfutiebra^^  Sec.  *  For  the  funeral  orations  (says  he)  de- 
pend very  often  on  some  public  office,  and  by  order  of  senate  are 
many  times  given  in  charge  to  the  magistrates  lo  be  performed  by 
iheniselves  in  person.'* 

The  invention  of  this  custom  is  generally  attributed  to  Valerius 
Poplicola,  soon  after  the  expulsion  of  the  regal  family.  Plutarch  tells 
us,  that, '  honouring  his  colleague's  obsequies  with  a  funeral  oration, 
it  so  pleased  the  Romans,  that  it  became  customary  for  the  best 
men  to  celebrate  the  funerals  of  great  persons  with  speeches  in  their 
commendation  ' 

Nor  was  this  honour  proper  to  one  sex  alone,  for  Livy  reports, 
that  the  matrons,  upon  account  of  making  a  collection  of  gold  for 
ihe  deliverance  of  Rome  from  the  Gauls,  were  allowed  as  a  signal 
favour  to  have  funeral  panegyrics  in  the  same  manner  as  the  men.' 
Pkitarch's  relation  of  this  matter  differs  from  Livy  only  in  the  reasons 
.)f  the  custom  :  '  He  acquaints  us  that  when  it  was  agreed  after  the 
aking  of  Veii,  that  a  bowl  of  massy  gold  should  be  made  and  sent  to 
Delphi,  there  was  so  great  a  scarcity  of  gold,  and  the  magistrates  so 
puzzled  in  considering  how  to  gel  it,  that  the  Uonran  ladies  meeting 
logether,  and  consulting  among  themselves,  out  of  the  golden  orna- 
ments that  they  wore,  contributed  as  much  as  went  to  the  making  the 
jfl'cring,  which  in  weight  came  to  eight  talents  of  gold.  The  senate, 
10  give  them  the  honour  they  had  deserved,  ordained  that  funeral 
orations  should  be  used  at  the  obsequies  of  women  as  well  as  of  men, 
which  had  never  been  a  custom  before.'  But  it  seems  probable,  that 
this  honour  was  at  first  only  paid  to  aged  matrons  ;  since  we  learn 
from  the  same  excellent  author,  that  there  was  no  precedent  of  any 
funeral  oration  on  a  younger  woman,  till  Julius  Caesar  first  made  gne 
upon  the  death  of  his  own  wife. 


I 


i  'E/u?y/..  lib.  1. 
^  Lib.  2.  Epist.  K 


I;  Institut.  lib,  3.  cap.  6. 


336 


THE   FUNERAl.!* 


Ol    THE   ROMANS. 


o'37 


Ciccrof"  and  Livy-  complain  very  much  of  tliis  custom  of  funeral 
speeches,  as  if  they  had  conduced  in  a  great  measure  to  the  corrup- 
tion and  {alsifyini^  of  liistory.  For  it  beini;  ordinary  on  those  occu 
sions  to  be  directed  more  by  the  precepts  of  oratory,  than  bv  the 
true  matter  of  fact,  it  usually  liappened,  that  the  deceased  party  was 
extolled  on  the  account  of  several  noble  achievements,  to  wliich  he 
had  no  just  pretensions;  and  especially  when  they  came  to  enquire 
into  their  stock  and  original,  as  was  customary  at  these  solemnities, 
Ihey  seldom  failed  to  clap  in  three  or  four  of  the  most  renowned 
persons  of  the  commonwealth,  to  illustrate  the  family  of  the  cle 
ceased;  and  so  by  degrees  well  nigh  ruined  all  proper  distinctions 
of  houses  and  blood. 

The  next  place  to  which  the  corpse  was  carried,  was  the  place  oi 
burning  and  burial.  It  has  been  a  custom  amongst  most  nations  to 
appoint  this  without  the  city,  particularly  among  the  Jews  and 
(irceks;  from  whom  it  may  be  supposed  to  have  been  derived  down 
to  the  Romans.  Tluit  the  Jews  buried  without  the  city,  is  evident 
from  several  places  of  the  New  Testament.  Thus  the  sepulchre,  in 
which  Joseph  laid  our  Saviour's  hotly,  was  in  the  same  place  in  whicli 
Jie  was  crucified,''  whi(  h  was  near  to  the  city.^  And  we  read  in  St. 
IVlatthcw,  that  at  our  Lord's  passion  '  the  graves  were  opened,  and 
many  bodies  of  the  saints  which  slept  arose,  and  came  out  of  tlicii 
graves  after  his  resurreclion,  and  went  into  the  holy  city,  and  ap^ 
pcared  unto  many/'i 

As  to  the  Grecians,  Servius  in  an  epistle  to  Tully,^  giving  an  ac- 
count of  the  unhappy  death  of  his  colleague  Marcellus,  which  fell  ou* 
in  (ircece,  tells  him,  that  he  could  not  by  any  means  obtain  leave  of 
the  Athenians  to  allow  liini  a  burying-place  within  the  ciiy,  tlic\ 
urging  a  religious  restraint  in  that  jioint,  and  the  want  of  precedent^ 
for  such  a  practice. 

The  Romans  followed  tia  .^aim.  lumoui  from  the  very  first  building 
of  the  city,  which  was  afurwards  settled  in  a  law  by  the  Decemviri, 
and  often  re\  ived  and  confirmed  by  several  later  constitutions.  The 
reason  of  tliis  ancient  practice  may  be  resolved  into  a  sacred  and  a 
r.ivil  consideration.  As  to  the  former,  the  Romans,  and  most  other 
people,  had  a  notion,  that  whatever  had  been  consecrated  to  the  su- 
pernal gods,  was  presently  defiled  ui)on  the  touch  of  a  corpse,  or  even 
by  bringing  such  a  spectacle  near  it.  'J'hus  A.  Oellius  tells  us,  that  the 
f'lamen  Dialh  might  not  on  any  account  enter  into  a  place  where 
'here  was  a  grave,  or  so  much  as  touch  a  dead  body.*     And,  if  the 


"^  In  Ihuto. 
«  John,  xix.  U. 
«»  hlein,  '20. 


"Lib.  8. 


n  Matthew,  xxvli.  52,  S3, 
«•  Famil.  hb.  4.  Epist.  12. 
*  I/ib.  10.  cap.  15. 


pLiitifex  Maximum  happened  to  praise  anyone  publicly  at  a  funeral, 
rhcre  was  a  veil  always  laid  over  the  corpse  to  keep  it  from  his  sight ; 
as  Dio  reports  of  Augustus,'  and  Seneca  of  Tiberius.'^  It  is  likely 
ihai  this  might  be  borrowed  from  the  Jewish  law,  by  which  the  high 
piiest  was  forbidden  to  use  the  ordinary  signs  of  mourning,  or  to 
»'  iro  in  to  any  dead  bodv."^ 

The  civil  consideration  seems  to  have  been,  that  neither  the  air 
miglit  be  corrupted  by  the  stench  of  putrefied  bodies, nor  the  build- 
ings endangered  by  the  frequency  of  funeral  fires. 

The  places  then,  appointed  for  burial  without  the  city,  were  eithei 
private  or  public  ;  the  private  places  were  the  fields  or  gardens  be- 
longing to  particidar  families.  Hence  Martial  took  the  jest  in  one 
of  his  epigrams,  on  a  gentleman  that  had  buried  several  wives  : 

St^ptimnjam,  PhileroSy  tihi  conditttr  uxor  in  a^vo. 
Plan  nul/i\  Phileros^  quam  tibi  vcddit  n^cv. 

If  it  was  possible,  they  always  buried  in  that  part  of  the  field  or 
-arden  which  lay  nearest  the  common  road,  both  to  put  passengers 
II  mind  of  mortality,  and  to  save  the  best  part  of  their  land.     Thus 
Juvenal,  Sat.  1  : 


Exprriar  ijuid  concedatnr  in  ilio£, 


Quorum  Flonunid  te^iUii-  ciiiis  attjue  Latina. 

And  we  have  scarce  any  relation  of  a  burying  in  authors,  but  thc\ 
*cll  us  the  urn  was  laid  near  such  a  W'ay.  Propertius  is  very  earnest 
.n  desiring  that  he  may  not  be  buried  after  this  ordinary  custom. 
.far  a  celebrated  road,  for  fear  it  should  disturb  his  shade  : 

J)i  facianty  men  ne  terra  locet  onsafrcq^ieiUiy 

Qua  f licit  afisiduo  tramite  vulgvs  iter. 
2*(jst  mortem  ti/imdi  sic  irifamantiir  amantum  .■ 

«lie  tc^-at  arborea  dcvia  terra  coma. 
Jiut  humor  i^notx  ciimidla  xallatufi  arfjuv  ; 

J\*on  jnvat  in  media  nomen  habere  via.  Lib.  3.  Eleg.  16. 

I'hc  pu!)Uc  burying-places  were  of  two  sorts  ;  those  which  were 
ilotted  to  the  poor,  and  those  which  were  put  to  this  use  only  at  the 
iunerals  of  great  persons.  The  former  were  the  finticul<£  or  /ititiculi^ 
^viihout  the  l^squiline  gate;  they  contained  a  great  quantity  of 
ijiound,  and  were  put  to  no  other  use,  than  the  buryingof  the  bones 
ind  ashes  of  persons  of  the  lowest  rank,  who  had  no  private  place  of 
fticir  own  to  lay  the  corpse  in.  But  because  the  vast  number  ol 
*^ones  deposited  here,  infecting  the  air,  rendered  the  neighbouring 
j)arts  of  the  city  unhealthy,  Augustus  gave  away  a  great  many  acrei; 
^>t  this  common  field  to  his  favourite  Maecenas,  who  turned  it  into 
•ine  gardens.     This  Horace  tells  us  at  large,  Book  !.  Sat.  8  ; 


Lib.  54. 
'^^onsolat,  ad  Mar,  r:in.  1^-. 


T.cvit.  xxjl.  10.  11, 


"H.'IH  iifE  funeral:; 

tlirv  pviu:!  angnstn  cjectacadavera  Cfih.'i 

ConservuH  vili  portinula  locabat  in  tircu  : 

Hoc  misera:  plehi  stabut  commune  sepitlc/iruiUy   &.C. 

The  public  place  assij2;nc(l  for  the  burial  of  i;rcat  persons  was  com 
monly  the  Ca?n/ius  Martius-.   This  honour  could  not  be  procured  bu 
i)y  a  public  decree  of  senate,  and  was  never  conferred  but  on  men  oi 
the  highest  stations  and  merits.    Thus  Plutarch  relates  of  Luculiih 
and  Pompey,  Appian  of  Sylla,'^v'  Suetonius  of  Drusus,"  and  Virgil  oi 
Marcclius : 


OF  THE  ROMAN'S. 


33-9 


QiiantoH  ille  vinim  miig^iam  JMnvorli.'i  otl  i/rbnn 
Ciintpuft  asfft  ifrmili/s  !   t.  /  7//U',  Til>viiiu\  xif/r/tia 
Funerut  riirn  tumulum  pi  wterlabere  rcceiitem  / 


A'.s.  6. 


It  has  been  said,  that  the  ordinary  custom  was  to  bury  without  the 
city,  but  we  must  except  some  sepulchres,  as  those  of  the  Vestal 
virpjins,  whom  Servius  tells  us  the  laws  allowed  a  buryintj-pjar, 
uithin  the  city.y  The  same  honour  was  allowed  to  sonie  extraordi 
Tiary  persons,  as  to  Valerius  Poplicola,'  and  to  Fabricius,*  bcini^  to 
continue  to  their  heirs.  Yet  none  of  the  family  were  afterwards  then 
interred,  but,  the  body  being;  carried  thither,  one  placed  a  burning 
torch  under  it,  and  then  immediately  took  it  away;  as  an  attestation 
of  the  deceased's  privilege,  and  his  receding  from  his  honour;  and 
'hen  the  body  was  removed  to  another  place. 

Cicero  in  his  ninthPhilippic  moves,  that  Servius  Sulpicius,  upoi, 
account  of  his  many  signal  services  to  the  commonwealth,  may  bt 
honoured  with  a  public  sepulchre  in  the  Campus  Esquilinus,  or  in 
any  other  place  where  the  Consul  should  please,  thirty  feet  in  di- 
iTiension  every  way,  and  to  remain  to  his  heirs  and  posterity.  Ihit 
•here  are  not  many  instances  of  the  like  practice. 

Having  done  with  the  carrying  forth,  we  come  to  the  act  of  bury- 
ing. The  corpse  being  brought  in  the  manner  already  described, 
"without  the  city,  if  they  designed  to  burn  it,  was  carried  directly  to 
the  place  appointed  for  that  purpose,  (which,  if  it  was  joined  with  tht. 
sepulchre,  was  called  i?«s/znw,  if  separate  from  it  Ustr'ma)  and  thca 
laid  on  the  Rog-us  or  Pyra^  a  pile  of  wood  prepared  to  burn  it  on. 
This  pile  was  built  in  the  shape  of  an  altar,  differing  in  height  ac 
cording  to  the  quality  of  the  deceased.  Thus  Virgil  in  the  funerii' 
of  Misenus,  Mn.  6  : 

■.li'cnngue  sepulchri 


Cong-erere  avboribus,  Calnqiu  cduccve  csrtunt. 
And  Ovid  against  Ibis  ; 

I'lt  dure  Plebeio  corpus  inane  vo^-o. 


^  '¥.fji<iv\.  lib.  1. 
*  Claud,  cap.  1 


y  Ad  iEn.  9. 

»  Plutarch  in  his  life, 


The  (rccs  which  they  made  use  of,  were  commoDly  such  as  had 
most  pilch  or  rosin  in  them  ;  and,  if  they  took  any  other  wood,  thcv 
iplit  it,  for  the  more  easy  catching  fire: 


Procumbmif  piece,  snmit  icta  aeniri'm^  ilcj\ 
Fvoxincicqur  tmbcs ;  cuncis  et  fissile  vobiir 
Scinditur. 


^'IIlG.  ^s.  6, 


Round  about  the  pile  they  used  to  set  a  parcel  of  cypress-trees. 
perhaps  to  hinder  the  noisome  smell  of  the  corpse.    This  obscrva 
•ion  is  owing  to  Virgil  in  the  same  place: 

Inifcntem  stnirere  pt/ram  ;  cui  fromUbus  at  lis 
IvU'.nint  latenu,  ct  ferules  ante  cupressos 
Cvnstituunt,' 

That  the  body  was  placed  on  the  pile,  not  by  itself,  but  togelhei 
,viih  the  couch  or  bed  on  which  it  lay,  we  have  the  authority  of  Ti- 
Hillus,  Book  1.  Kleg.  I  : 

Fit  bis  et  avsuro  positum  ine^  Delia,  lecto. 

This  being  done,  the  next  of  blood  performed  the  ceremony  of 
lighting  the  pile;  which  they  did  with  a  torch,  turning  their  face 
.ill  the  while  the  other  way,  as  if  it  was  done  out  of  necessity,  and 
not  willingly.     Thus  Vergil,  Mn.  6: 


Subjcctam,  more  parentum. 


Aversi  temterefaccm. 

As  soon  as  the  wood  was  set  on  fire,  they  wished  and  prayed  for 
Mvind  to  assist  the  flames,  and  hasten  the  consuming  of  the  body, 
which  they  looked  on  as  a  fortunate  accident.  Thus  Cynthia  in  Pro- 
;>crtius  : 

Ciir  ventos  non  ipse  vo^is,  ing-rate,  petisti  ? 

And  Plutarch  in  the  life  of  Sylla,  reports,  '  that,  the  day  being 
Joudy  over  head,  they  deferred  carrying  forth  the  cfsr^^sc  till  about 
Iirec  in  the  afternoon,  expecting  it  would  rain  :  but  a  strong  wind 
'lowing  full  against  the  funeral  pile,  and  setting  it  all  on  a  flame,  his 
ijody  was  consumed  in  a  moment.  As  the  pile  shrunk  down,  and  the 
:ire  was  upon  going  out,  the  clouds  showered  down  and  continued 
J-aming  till  night.  So  that  his  good  fortune  was  firm  even  to  the  last, 
«iid  did,  as  it  were,  officiate  at  his  funeral.* 

At  the  funerals  of  the  emperors  or  renowned  generals,  as  soon  as 
the  M'ood  was  lighted,  the  soldiers,  and  all  the  company  made  a  so- 
lemn course,  decursio,  three  times  round  the  pile,  to  show  their  affec- 
tion to  the  deceased;  of  which  we  have  numerous  examples  in  his 
'oiy.     Virgil  has  not  forgot  to  express  this  custom  : 


»  Cicero, 


Ter  circum  accetisos  ci?icti  fvl^entihus  armis 
Decyrrere  vo^ts  ,-  ter  mastumfunens  igjiem. 
Lnstraveve  in  equis^  vlidatiisque  ore  dedere. 


lEy.  IL 


•  •  •  • 


G40 


THE  FUNERALS 


The  body  never  burnt  without  company  ;  Ibrbccaubc  ihcy  laijcied 
that  the  ghosts  delighted  in  blood,  it  was  customary  to  kill  a  great 
number  of  beasts,  and  throw  them  on  the  pile  : 


JMulta  bourn  circa  mactantur  corpora  morti  ,- 
Sftio-cra«f/ue  sues^  raptasqne  ex  omnihus  agri 
Infammam  Jugutant  jxcutles. 


Vino.  jV.'s.  11 


In  the  more  ignorant  and  barbarous  ages,  they  used  to  murder 
men,  and  cast  them  into  the  funeral  flames  of  princes  and  command- 
ers.  The  poets  never  burn  a  hero  without  this  inhuman  ccrcmom 
Homer  gives  Patroclus 

And  Virgil,  .En.  10  : 

Quatuoi-  hicJnveneSf  totideniy  quos  cducat  (Jftit', 
Viventes  rapit ,-  biferias  quos  immolet  ifm/yr/.s*, 
Captivoque  rogi  perfundat  sanguine  flnmmas. 

Hut  besides  those,  there  were  abundance  of  presents  thrown  into 
the  fatal  flames,  of  several  sorts:  These  consisted  for  the  most  part 
of  costy  garments  and  perfumes  thrown  on  the  body  as  it  burned 
I'hns  Virgil,  /En.  6; 

Pnvpurcasque  super  vestes,  xielaniina  nota^ 
Cunjiciuut, 

And  Plutarch  makes  the  extravagant  expenses  of  Cato  Junior  ar 
the  funeral  of  his  brother  C(x:pio,  to  have  been  taken  up  in  a  vast 
quantity  of  costly  garments  and  perfumes. 

All  the  precious  gums,  essences,  and  balsams,  that  the  anticntb 
were  acquainted  with,  we  find  employed  in  their  funerals:  Hence 
iuvenal  describes  a  fop  that  used  abundance  of  essence  : 


Et  matutino  HuUnns  Crispinus  amoKio, 
Quantum  vix  redolent  duo  funera. 


Sat.  4. 


The  soldiers  and  generals  had  usually  their  arms  burnt  v/ith  tlieiri 
on  the  pile.     Thus  Virgil,  in  the  funeral  of  Misenus : 

Decorantquc  ^iper  fulgejitibui*  tinnis.  ^^,  6. 

And  in  another  place  he  adds  the  spoils  taken  from  the  enemy  : 

Jfinc  alii  spolia  oca  sis  direpta  Latinis 
Conjiciunt  igni,  galeas  ensesque  deeoros, 
Erceuuqne.frrventesgne  rotas  .•  par^  inuneru  notiiy 
Ipsorum  clypcosy  et  nonfelicia  tela.  ^^y.  n. 

When  the  pile  was  burnt  down,  they  put  out  the  remains  of  the 
fire,  by  sprinkling  wine,  that  iJicy  might  the  more  easily  gather  up 
the  bones  and  ashes  : 

Postquam  collapsi  cinej-csy  acfamma  quievit, 

Jieliquias  vino  et  btbiilam  lavcre  favillam.  \im.  iEx.  6. 

This  gathering  up  the  bones  and  ashes,  and  putting  them  into  the 
urn,  was  the  next  oflic*  paid  to  the  deceased,  which  they  tw-me(' 


• . » ' 

•  > 

•  •  t  • « 


>  •  •  •  • 


•  *  • 

•   c    «     ■ 

t  •  . 


«  •  «  • 


-  •  •  - 


OF  THE  ROMANS. 


341 


>'UlV^^'j«/.TliO  aiVft    1».|p:iCK.v'PORIH    HVIMOTC^ATID    1- 


OST       I".  K 


,r<ft. 


^     I      6 


^ 


\ 


/ 


fW'te 


^/*:2^ 


t-) 


'^ 


K>^ 


'A  -y"^i^^'^. 


n>IR[D0   J-ll^-.f^JiiJS 


htNtJm/  f<vHi.im.i„  Af{,nr.ir,/j:'f  ih^nuf  .»    /.S'.V. 


.,../.5^.«m.  The  whole  custom  is  mobt  lully  and  elegantly  described 
)v  Tibullus  in  his  third  book,  Eleg.  2: 
Eriro  ubi  cum  ienuem,  l^c. 
How  the  ashes  and  bones  of  the  man  came  to  be  distinguished 
rom  those  of  the  beasts,  and  wood,  and  oJier  .natcrials,  is  not  easy 
:o  be  conceived,  uidess  wc  suppose  the  diirercnce  to  have  arisen 
:ro.n  the  artificial  placing  of  the  corp.e  on  ti)c  pile,  so  that  every 
hing  else  should  fall  away  on  each  side,  and  leave  the  human  re- 
ics  in  a  heap  by  thcmsejves. 

Nothing  now  remained  but  to  put  the  urn  into  the  sepulchre,  and 
a  sprinkle  the  company  with  holy  water,  and  dismiss  them,  Vircr 
En.  6 ;  ^        ^ 

Ossaque  lecta  cado  texit  Chorma-us  aheno  . 
Idem  ter  aocios  pwa  circumtiilit  undo, 
Spurgens  vore  levi,  et  ramo  feUcu  oliva, 
Lustravitque  vivos,  dixitque  novhaima  verba. 
These  novMma  verba  were  either  directed  to  the  deceased,  or  to 
le  company.  The  form  of  speech  with  which  they  took  leave  of  the 
cccased  was,  *  Vale,  vale,  vale  !  nos  te,  ordine  quo  natura  premise- 
t,  cuncti  sequcmur/  The  form,  with  which  the  Fr^Jica  dismissed 
.c  people,  was  ilicet,  i.  e.  ire  licet.     As  they  went  away,  they  had 
custom  of  wishing  for  light  earth  to  lie  on  the  relics,  which  they 
'cckoned  a  great  happiness.  Hence  it  is  an  usual  inscription  on  an- 
lent  funeral  monuments  S.  T.  T.  L.  or  *  Sit  tibi  terra  levis.' 
To  enquire  into  the  original  of  sepulchres,  their  several  kinds  and 
:orms,  the  variety  of  ornaments,  the  difference  of  inscriptions,  and 
he  many  ways  of  violating  the  ton.bs  of  the  dead,  would  be  too  nice 
disquisition  for  the  present  design.    Yet  we  must  not  pass  by  the 
Ccenotaphia,  or  monuments  erected  on  a  very  singular  account, 
either  to  persons  buried  in  another  place,  or  to  those  who  had  re- 
eived  no  burial,  and  whose  relics  could  not  be  found. 
Thus  Suetonius  tells  us,  that  the  soldiers  in  Germany  raised  an  ho- 
norary  tomb  to  the  memory  of  Drusus,  though  his  body  had  been 
carried  to  Rome,  and  deposited  in  the  Campus  Martiusrb    And  we 
often  find  the  generals  raising  tombs  to  the  honour  of  those  soldiers 
vhose  bodies  could  not  be  found  after  a  fight.  These  tumuli  inanes 
or  honorarii,  when  erected  to  the  memory  of  particular  persons,  were 
usually  kept  as  sacred  as  the  true  monuments,  and  had  the  same  cc- 
"emon.es  performed  at  them.     Thus  Virgil  describes  Andromache 
'■'^eping  the  anniversary  of  Hector's  death,  .En.  3  : 

So'ennes  turn  forte  dupes,  et  tristia  dona 
Ijibubiit  cinert  jitulromache,  manesgite  vocabat 
Hecioeutn  ad  tumuliim,  viridi  quern  cespite  inanev:. 
F.t  ^eminas,  causam  lacrvmis,  sacraverat  ara^ 

^  Sueton.  Claud,  cap,  1 


>42 


IH£  lUNERALS 


OF  THE  ROMANS. 


343 


.\nd  .£neas  teils  Dciphobus,  iliat  he  has  paid  him  such  an  honour 

Tunc  rgomet  tiimitlum  Rhceteo  in  litorf  inanemj 
Constituii  et  viagna  manes  ter  voce  vocavi  ,• 
A'omen  et  iirma  locum  sei'xant.     •■■■  ^s.  Tv 

Afikr  the  Funeral,  we  arc  to  take  notice  of  the  several  liies 
perrornicd  in  lionour  of  tlie  dead,  at  the  festivals  instituted  widi  thu' 
desiiijn.  The  chief  time  of  payint^  these  ofTices  was  the  Fcraliu^ax 
the  feast  of  the  ghosts,  in  the  month  of  February;  but  it  was  ordi- 
nary for  particular  families  to  have  proper  seasons  of  discharging- 
this  duly,  as  the  jVovrntiulia^  the  Dcccjinalia^  and  the  like.  The 
ceremonies  themselves  may  be  reduced  to  these  three  heads,  sacri 
fices,  feasts,  and  games;  to  which  if  we  subjoin  the  customs  ol 
mourning,  and  of  the  consecration,  we  shall  take  in  all  that  remain^, 
on  this  subject. 

The  sacrifices  (whioh  they  called  Itiferia:)  consisted  of  liquors 
victims,  and  garlands.  The  liquors  were  water,  wine,  milk,  bloixl 
and  liquid  balsam  : 

Hie  duo  rite  mero  lihans  carchesia  Baccho 

Futidit  hunii,  duo  facte  novoy  duo  sanguirie  sacra.        ViRf*.  X.s.  5, 

The  blood  was  taken  from  the  victims  offered  to  the  Manes,  whicl, 
were  usually  of  the  smaller  cattle,  though  in  ancient  times  it  \vu^ 
customary  to  use  captives  or  slaves  in  this  inhuman  manner. 

The  balsams  and  garlands  occur  every  where  in  the  poets.  Pro 
pert.  lib.  3.  Eleg.  16  : 

Affcret  hue  un^uenta  mihiy  sertisque  sepukfii'ujn 
Ornabit^  cnstos  ad  mea  bnsta  sedeiu. 

Tibul.  lib.  2.  Eleg.  4  : 

Atgve  aliquis  senior,  veteres  veneratus  amoren, 
Antiua  constnicto  serta  dabit  tumnlo. 

Besides  these  chaplets,  they  strewed  loose  flowers  about  the  mo 
iiumenf  : 

Purpureosque jaeit foreSy  ac  taliafatur.  XLn.  •> 

And  again,  iEn.  6  : 

Tu  JMarcellns  eris.     JVIanihus  date  lilia  plenin  .• 
Purpw^eos  spavgam  Jl>>res  .•  unimamque  nepotin 

His  ^saltern  aecumulem  doniSf  et  fimgar  inani 
jMtmere. 

I'hc  feasts  celebrated  to  the  honour  of  the  deceased  were  eitlici 
private  or  publW  The  private  feasts  were  termed  Siiicerriia,  from 
,sv7r.r,  and  aeuu,  a:>  if  we  should  say  *  suppers  made  on  a  stone.' 
These  were  prepared  both  for  the  dead  and  the  living.  The  repas: 
designed  for  the  dead,  consisting  commonly  of  beans,  lettuces,  bread- 
and  ego^s,  or  ihe  like,  was  laid  on  the  tomb  for  the  ghosts  to  come  out 
and  cat,  as  they  fancied  thev  would;  and  what  was  left  they  bnrnt  or 


le  stone.  Travellers  tell  us  that  the  Indians  at  present  have  a  su- 
perstitious custom  much  of  this  nature,  putting  a  piece  of  meat  al- 
ways in  the  grave  with  the  dead  body,  when  they  bury  in  the  plan- 
tations. 

It  was  from  this  custom,  that  to  express  the  most  miserable  po- 
verty of  creatures  almost  starved,  they  used  to  say,  '  Such  an  one 
irot  his  victuals  from  the  tombs  :'  Thus  Catullus,  :>7  : 

Uu^or  Meneni ;  axpe  quam  in  stpulchretia 
Vidistis  ipso  rapere  rogo  canatv, 
Qiiu/n  dovolutum  ex  igne  prosequens  panein 
A  aemiraso  tunderetur  ustore. 

\nd  Tibullus's  curse  is  much  to  the  same  purpose ;  i.  5  : 

Ipsa  fame  stimulante  fnre7is,  herbasqtic  sepulchris 
Quifrat,  et  a  s^evis  ossa  relicta  lupis. 

The  private  feasts  for  the  living  were  kept  at  the  tomb  of  the  de 
oeascd,  by  the  nearest  friends  and  relations  only. 

The  public  feasts  were  when  the  heirs  or  friends  of  some  rich  or 
^^reat  person  obliged  the  people  with  a  general  treat  to  his  honour 
and  memory;  as  Cicero  reports  of  the  funeral  of  Scipio  Africanus,' 
and  Dio  of  that  of  Sylla.d  And  Suetonius*  relates  that  Julius  Cse- 
r,ar  gave  the  people  a  feast  in  memory  of  his  daughter.  There  was  a 
.  ustom  on  these  occasions  to  distribute  a  parcel  of  raw  meat  among 
ihe  poor  people,  which  they  termed  uisceratio ;  though  this  was 
.-ometimes  given  without  the  public  feasts. 

The  funeral  games  have  already  been  dispatched  among  the  other 
^hows. 

As  to  the  custom  of  mourning,  besides  what  has  been  before  ob- 
served by  the  bye,  we  may  farther  take  notice  of  the  time  appointed 
for  that  ceremony,  and  some  of  the  most  remarkable  ways  of  express- 
ing it.    '  Numa  (as  Plutarch  tells  us  in  his  life)  prescribed  rules  for 
egulating  the  days  of  mourning  according  to  certain  times  and  ages. 
Vs  for  example  a  child  of  three  years,  and  so  upwards  to  ten,  was  to 
be  mourned  for  so  many  months  as  he  was  years  old.     And  the 
longest  time  of  mourning,  for  any  person  whatsoever,  was  not  to 
^-xceed  the  term  often  months;  which  also  was  the  time  appointed 
unto  widows  to  lament  the  loss  of  their  deceased  husbands,  before 
which  they  could  not,  without  great  indecency,  pass  unto  second 
marriage  :  But,  in  case  their  incontinence  was  such  as  could  not  ad- 
mit so  long  an  abstinence  from  the  nuptial  bed,  they  were  to  sacri- 
iice  a  cow  with  a  calf,  for  expiation  of  their  fault.' 

Now  Romulus's  year  consisting  but  of  ten  months,  when  Numa 
Afterwards  added  two  months  more,  he  did  not  alter  the  time  he  had 


'  In  Orat.  pro  Murscna. 


^  Lib.  37. 


'■  Cap.  22 


ci-f 


•i 


THE    FUNERALS 


OF  TIIL   ROMANS. 


345 


before  scUlctI  for  mourning;  and   Uicreion:,  llioiigli  alter  Ihal  Lui 
wc  tncct  wiih  /uctit.s  annuus^  or  a  year's  moiirnini!;,  used  often  Uboi> 
tlic  death  of  some  eminent  j)erson,  wc  must  take  it  only  for  tlic  ol 
year  of  Homulus,  or  the  space  of  ten  months. 

There  were  several  accidents  which  often  occasioned  the  concii 
ding;  of  a  public  or  private  mourning  before  the  fixed  tiuiC;  such  a 
the  (h:dication  of  a  temple.  ♦'"  solemnity  of  public  games  or  fcsii 
vals,  the  solemn  lustration  performed  by  the  Censor,  and  the  di^ 
charging  any  vow  made  by  a  magistrate  or  general;  which,  bein^ 
times  of  public  rejoicing,  would  have  otherwise  implied  a  coutru 
diction. 

As  to  the  tokens  of  private  grief,  they  had  none  but  what  an 
(ommon  to  both  nations,  as  the  keeping  their  house  for  such  a  timt 
Ihc  avoiding  all  manner  of  recreations  and  entertainments,  and  the 
like.  liUi,  in  pul)lie  mourning,  it  was  a  singular  custom  to  exprc^ 
their  concern,  by  making  the  term  and  all  business  immediately  to 
end,  and  settling  a  vacation  till  such  a  peiiod  ;  of  which  we  hav 
iVecjuenl  instances. 

I'he  last  ceremony,  designed  to  be  spoken  of,  was  consecration 
This  belonged   j^roperly  to  the  emperors  ;  yet  we  meet  too  with  ; 
private  consecration,  which  we  may  observe  in  our  way.  This  wa- 
Avhen  the  friends  and  relations  of  the  deceased  canonized  him,  aiifi 
paid  him  worship  in  private;  a  piece  of  respect  commonly  paid  \v 
parents  by  their  children,  as  Plutarch  observes  in  his  Roman  Que 
lions;  yet  tiie  parents  too  sometimes  conferred  the  same  honour o; 
their  deceased  children,  as  ('ieero  promiseth  to  do  for  his  daughli 
Tullia,  in  the  end  of  liis  Consolation  ;  and  though  that  piece  be  sus 
])cctcd,  as  wo  now  have  it,  yet  the  present  authority  loses  nothins 
(if  its  force,  being  cited  heretofore  by  Lactanlius,  according  to  tht 
conies  extant  in  his  time. 

Th.c  piiblic   rt^Tisecration  had  its  original  from  the  deification  of 
ilus,  but  ^»ar>  afterwards  discontinued  till  the  lime  of  the  em- 


i?,.  .,, 


pciors,  Oh  most  of  whom  tiiis  honour  was  conferred.  The  whole  cc 
remony   is  most   accurately   described   by   Ilcrodian,  in   his  fourth 
book  ;  the  iranslaiion  of  which  place  may  conclude  this  subject : 

*^  The  Romans  (says  he)  have  a  custom  to  consecrate  those  em 
perors  who  either  leave  sons  or  designed  successors  at  ihair  deati) 
and  il.ose  who  received  this  honour  are  said  to  be  enrolled  among 
the  gods.  On  this  occasion  the  whole  city  maintains  a  public  grief 
mixed  as  it  were  with  the  solemnity  of  a  t'estival.  The  true  bodv  is 
buried  in  a  very  suniptuous  funeral,  according  to  the  ordinary  me- 
thod. But  they  contrive  to  have  an  image  of  the  emperor  in  wax 
U^ne  to  the  life ;  and  this  they  expose  to  public  view,  just  at  the  en- 


lance  of  the  palace  gate,  on  a  stately  bed  of  ivory,  covered  with 
rich  garments  of  embroidered  work  nnd  cloth  of  gold.    So  the  image 
lies  there,  all   pale,  as  if  under  a  dangerous  indisposition.     Round 
die  bed  there  sii,  the  greatest  part  of  the  day,  on  the  left  side,  the 
whok^  senate  in  black;  on  the  right  the  ag^d   matrons,  who,  either 
upon  account  of  their  parents  or  husbands,  aie  reputed  noble  ;  They 
wrar  no  jewels  or  gold,  or  otlicr  usual  ornaments,  but  are  attired  in 
cl'.ise  white  vests,  to  express  their  sorrow  and  concern.     This  cere- 
mony continues  seven  days  together;  the  physicians  being  admitted 
every  day  to  the  bed,  and  dt  chiring  the  patient   to  grow  all  along 
worse  and   worse.     At   last   when   they  suppose   him  to  ])e  dead,  a 
select  company  of  young  gentlemen  of  the  Senatorial!  order  take 
ap  the  bed  on  their  shoulders,  and  cany  it  througii  the  holy  way 
iniu  the  old  Forum,  the  i)lace  where  the  Roman  magistrates  used 
lo  lay  down  their  offices.     On  both  sides  there  are  raised  galleries 
with  seats  one  above  another,  one  side  being  filled  with  a  choir  of 
boys  all  nobly  descended,  and  of  the  most  eminent  Patrician  families; 
the  other  with  a  like  set  of  ladies  of  quality,  who  both  together  sinr 
hymns  and  Facans  composed  in  very  mournful  and  passionate  airs, 
Vj  the  praise  of  the  deceased.     When  these  arc  over,  they  take  up 
die  bed  again,  and  carry  it  into  the  Campus  Martius;  where,  in  the 
widest  part  of  the  field,  is  erected  a  four  square  ])ile,  entirely  com- 
posed of  large  planks,  in  shape  of  a  pavilion,  and  exactly  regular  and 
equal  in  the  dimensions.     This   in   the  inside  is  filled  up  with  dry 
chips,  but  without  is  adorned  with  coverlids   of  cloth  of  gold,  and 
:)eautified  with  pictures  and  curious  figures   in  ivory.     Above  this 
he  placed  another  frame  of  wood,  much  less  indeed,  but  set  off  with 
urnaments  of  the  same  nature,  and  hav ing  little  doors  or  gates  stand- 
ing about  it.     Over  this  are  seta  third  and  fourth  pile,  every  one 
being  considerably  less  than  that  on  wliich  it  stands;  and  so  others 
perhaps  till  they  come  to  the  last  of  all,  which  forms  the  top.    The 
figure  of  this  structure,  altogether,  may  be  compared  to  those  watch- 
towers  which  are  to  be  seen  in  harbours  of  note,  and  bv  tlic  fire  on 
iheir  top  direct  the  course  of  the  ships  into  the  haven.     After  this, 
hoisting  up  the  body  into  the  second  frame  of  buildings,  they  get 
ogether  avast  quantity  of  all  manner  of  sweet  odours  and  perfn-pes, 
whether  of  fruits,  herbs,  or  gums,  and  pour  them  in  heaps  all  about 
it;  there  being  no  nation,  or  city,  or  indeed  any  eminent  men,  who 
do  not  rival  one  another  in  paying  these  last  presents  to  their  prince. 
When  the  place  is  quite  filled  with  a  huge  pile  of  spices  and  drugs, 
the  whole  order  of  knights  ride  in  a  solemn  procession  round  the 
•jtricture,  and  imitate  the  motions  of  the  Pyrrhic  dance.     Chariots 
:oo,  in  a  very  regular  and  decent  manner,  are  drove  round  the  pile. 


,,Aj 


346 


TIIK   ENTF.RTAINMrsTS 


OF   THE   ROMANS. 


.347 


havinj^  the  roachincn  cloihetl  in  purple,  and  hcarinpj  tlie  imagci 
of  all  the  illustrious  Ro-nnns,  renowned  cither  for  their  counsels  and 
administration  ai  home,  *..  ihcir  memorable  achievements  in  war 
This  pomp  hcinj^  finished,  the  successor  to  the  empire,  takin^  a 
torch  in  his  hand,  puts  it  to  the  frame,  and  at  the  satne  time  ihr 
\vholc  company  assist  in  l^^liting  it  in  several  places;  when,  on  a 
sudden,  the  f  hips  and  dru^s  catching;  fuc,  the  whole  pile  is  quickly 
consumed.  At  last,  horn  thr  highest  and  smallest  frame  of  wood 
an  eagle  is  let  loose,  which,  a:>'.endinfj  with  the  flames  towards  thr 
sky,  is  supposed  to  carry  the  prince's  soul  to  heaven." 


CllAPTKU    XI. 


OF  THE  ROMAN    bN  TKR  TA  INM  F.N  IS. 


Tiir^  peculiar  custom'-  nf  tiu  IN.niani,,  in  reference  to  eating  ana 
drinking,  will  easily  fall  undei  me  ihrce  heads,  of  the  time,  the 
place,  and  the  manner  of  llieir  entertamments.  As  to  the  first,  the 
Romans  had  no  proper  repast  besides  supper,  for  which  the  ordinary 
time  was  about  the  ninth  hour,  or  our  three  o'clock.  Thus  Mania! 
reckonnii^  up  the  busint  ss  of  every  hour,  iv   8: 

Imperat  exstwctoa  fvangere  nonu  toros. 

But  the  more  frugal  made  this  meal  a  little  before  sunset,  in  the 
declension  of  the  day  :  To  which  Virgil  might  possibly  allude,  though 
.speaking  of  the  customs  of  Carthage,  and  of  its  rjuecn,  when  he 
says, 

JVit7ic  eademy  lahentf  die  convhi'a  f/uderit.  Mn.  4. 

On  the  other  side,  the  voluptuous  and  extravagant  commonly 

began  their  feasts  before  the  ordinary  hour.     Thus  Horace,  Book  1 

Od.  1: 

JVec  partem  sohdo  demere  de  die 
Spernit. 

And  Juvenal,  Sat.  10: 

Exul  ab  octava  Marius  bibit. 

Those  that  could  not  hold  out  till  supper,  used  to  break  then 
fast  in  some  other  part  of  the  day,  some  at  the  second  hour,  some 
at  the  fourth,  answering  to  our  eight  and  ten;  some  at  the  sixth, or 
about  noon;  others  at  the  eighth,  or  our  two, as  their  stomachs  re 


.juired,  or  their  employments  gave  them  leave.  At  this  time  they 
cldom  ate  any  thing  but  a  bit  of  dry  bread,  or  perhaps  a  few  raisins 
;i  nuts,  or  a  little  honey.  From  the  different  hours  of  taking  this 
i)reakfast,  it  is  likely  that  the  jrntaculum^  firandium^  merenda^  See. 
fuel  their  original,  being  really  the  same  repast  made  by  several 
•icrsons  at  several  times/ 

The  Place,  in  which  the  Romans  eat,  was  anciently  called  cetna- 
Ilium.     Seneca,  Suetonius,  and  others,  style  it  canatio.     But  the 
niost  common  appellation,  which  they  borrowed  from  the  Grecians, 
was  triclmtum.     Servius  on  the  first  of  the  ^Eneids,  at  that  verse, 

Jiuvea  cotnposuit  sponda^  mediumq^ie  locavity 
aKCs  an  occasion  to  reprehend  those  grammarians  who  will  have 
tnctmium  to  signify  a  room  to  sup  in,  and  not  barely  a  table.  Yet 
toomit  a  tedious  number  of  citations  from  other  authors)  Tully 
Mrriself  useth  the  word  in  that  sense;  for  in  one  of  his  epistles  he 
idls  Atticus,«  that  when  Caesar  came  to  Philippi,  the  town  was  so 
full  of  soldiers  as  to  leave  Cxsar  scarce  a  triclinium,  to  sup  in. 

Anciently  the  Romans  used   to  sup  sitting,  as  the  Europeans  at 
present,  making  use  of  a  long  table. 

Perpttuis  soUti  paires  consistere  mensia.  Vrnc.  fP.'s,  8. 

Afterwards  the  men  took   up  a  custom  of  lying  uown,  but  the 
vomen  for  some  time  after  stdl  kept  sitting,  as  the  most  decent  pos- 
ure.b     The  children  too  of  princes  and  noblemen,  for  the  same  rea- 
son, used  to  sit  at  the  backs  of  couches;'  whence,  after  a  dish  or 
wo,  they  withdrew  without  causing  any  disturbance.     Yet  as  to  the 
vomen,  it  is  evident,  that  in  after  times  they  used  the  same  posture 
t  the  table  as  men.     Thus  Cicero  in  an  epistle  to  Paetus,  telling  him 
fone  Clyteris,  a  gentlewoman  that  was  lately  at  a  treat  with  him. 
n.akes  use  of  the  word  accubuit.  And  Ovid,  in  his  fourth  love-elegy 
t  the  first  book,  advises  his  mistress  about  her  carriage  at  the  table 
-elore  her  husband. 

Cum  premet  ille  torum^  vultu  comes  ipm  modesto 
Ibigf  ut  accumbav. 

And  Suetonius  relate^,  that,  at  an  entertainment  of  the  emperor 
aligula,  he  placed  all  his  sisters  one  by  one  below  himself,  uxor^ 

upra  cubante^  '  his  wife  lying  above  him.' 

\Vhen  they  began  thus  to  lie  down,  instead  of  sitting  at  meat, 
•hey  contrived  a  sort  of  beds  or  couches  of  the  same  nature  with 

hose  on  which  they  slept,  but  distinguished  from  them  by  the  name 

Dacier  on  Horace,  Book  1.  Od.  1. 
'Lib.  15.  Epist.  50.  h  val.  Majc.  lib.  2.  cap.  1 

Tacitus  Ann.  13.     Suetonius  Claud  cap.  .32- 


if 


.348 


THE  ENTERTAINMENTS 


q{  lecti  triciinioru7fiy  or  tricliniares^  the  other  being  called /tfcri  cuh 
cidctrii. 

They  were  made  in  several  forms,  but  commonly  four-squart 
lOinctimes  to  hold  three  or  four,  sometimes  two  persons  or  only  one 
Vet,  in  the  same  entcrtainini;  loom,  it  was  observed  to  have  all  thv 
couches  of  the  same  shape  and  make.    After  the  round  cition-tabk 
grew  in  fashion,  they  chantred  the  three  beds  (which  denominaier' 
llie  Triclinium^  for  the  Stihadiuni^  one  single  large  couch   in  the 
shape  of  a  half-moon,  or  of  thr  firecian  sigma^  from  which  it  some 
times  borrowed  its  name,  a.s  in  Martial  : 

^Iccipe  Innata  scriphim  te.ftufline  st^ma. 

These  Stibadia  took  their  several  names  from  the  number  ot  nici 
that  they  held,  as  the  lit  xaclinon  for  six,  the  HtfitacliJioji  for  seven. 
and  so  on. 

The  higher  the  bcdb  weie,  the  moie  aublc  and  stalely,  and  tht 
more  decent  too  they  were  thout;hl.      Hence  Virgil,  J^n.  2: 

Inde  tovo  pater  *^neas  sic  ovsiis  ab  alto. 
And  a{?ain.  .Va\.  6  : 


l^vccnt  [(<  nuuiljiis  aitis 


J§}f')^,.>ff     /j///MV'     fti*i<y 


On  the  contiury,  low  couches  were  looked  on  so  extremely  scan 
dalous,  that  (Valerius  Maximus  tells  the  story)  one  ^Elius  Tubero 
a  man  of  great  integrity,  and  of  very  noble  progenitors,  being  a  can 
didatc  for  the  Praetorship,  lost  the  place,  only  for  making  use  of  ? 
low  hort  of  supping-bi  f'-  \vhcn  he  gave  the  people  u  public  enter 
tainnient.' 

On  the  beds  ihey  Imd  u  kind  of  ticks  or  quilts,  stuffed  with  fea 
thers,  herbs,  or  tow  ;  which  they  called  culcitra:.  Over  these  thes 
threw  in  ancient  times  nothing  but  goat-skins;  which  they  after 
wards  changed  for  the  mraguluy  the  coverlids  or  carpets.  These 
we  sometimes  find  under  the  name  of  ..,  on  account  of  belong 

ing  to  the  torus.     Thus  in  Horace, 

wAV  till pe  torulf  ue  sordida  mappa 


Corru^-et  na 


Lib,  Z.  Lpisi.  o. 
And  agaiii, 

Et  Tyrias  dure  cii  cum  illota  toru/iu  t'estcs.         Lib.  2.  Sat.  4. 

On  the  carpets  were  laid  the  /ni/vini,  or  pillows,  for  the  guests  to 
lean  their  backs  on. 

It  would  be  endless  to  describe  the  ,aiict)  and  richness  of  the 
furniture  with  which  they  set  off  their  tables.     It  will  be  enoup;h  to  i| 
observe  from  Pliny,  that,  when  Carthage  was  finally  destroyed  by 


'  Val.  Max.  lib.  7.  cap.  .'5. 


OP  THE   ROMANS. 


349 


Scipio  Africanus,  the  whole  mass  of  treasure  found  in  that  city,  which 
had  so  long  contended  for  riches,  glory,  and  empi-e,  with  Rome  it- 
self, amounted  to  no  more  than  what  in  Pliny's  ume,  was  often  laid 
out  in  the  furniture  of  a  table.*' 

As  to  the  manner  of  the  entertainment,  the  guests  in  the  first 
place  bathed  with  the  master  of  the  feast,  and  then  changed  their 
ordinary  clothes  for  the  -vcstis  cojivivalis,  or  c^tnatoria,  a  light  kind 
of  a  frock;  at  the  same  time  having  their  solcx  pulled  off  by  their 
.hv»s,  that  they  might  not  foul  the  fine  carpets  and  furniture  of  the 
beds.     And  now  taking  their  places,  the  first  man  lay  at  the  head 
of  the  bed,  resting  the  fore  part  of  his  body  on  his  left  elbow,  and 
having  a  pillow  or  bolster  to  prop  up  his  back.     The  next  man  lay 
with  his  heaW  towards  the  feet  of  the  first,  from  which  he  was  defend- 
ed by  the  bolster  that  supported  his  own  back,  commonly  reaching 
lover  to  the  naval  of  the  other  man  ;  and  the  rest  after  the  same  man- 
jner.     Being  settled  on  the  beds,  in  the  next  place  they  wash  their 
I  hands : 

Strat'jtpie  aupfr  diacumbitur  uatro  ,- 

Dant  mam  bus  famuli  Ivrnphas.  Viug.  JEs,  1. 

After  this  they  were  served  with  garlands,  or  roses,  and  whatcvcj 
ther  flowers  were  in  season,  which  they  did  not  wear  only  on  their 
cads,  but  sometimes  too  about  their  necks  and  arms.  This  too  was 
he  time  to  present  them  with  essences  and  perfumes. 

The  number  of  guests  is  by  A.  Gellius  stated,  according  to  Varro, 
hat  they  should  not  be  fewer  than  three,  or  more  than  nine;  either 
J  express  tiie  number  of  the  Graces  or  the  Muses. 

The  most  honourable  place  was  the  middle  bed,  and  the  middle 
t  that.  Horace  describes  the  whole  order  of  sitting  in  his  eighth 
atire  of  the  second  Book  : 

Sipnynus  ego,  etpropc  me  Viscuii  Sahimis,  et  inf,a^ 
Si  meminiy  Vaviiis  ;  cum  Srrvilio  Balatronc 
HOidiuSf  guos  J\Lec<enaii  adduxerat  umbras  ; 
JS\menta7iu!i  evat  svpir  ipsum.  Farcins  infra. 

So  that  ififra  ali(jue7n  cubare  is  the  same  as  to  lie  in  one's  bosom, 
^  St.  John  is  said  to  have  done  in  our  Saviour's  ;  whence  learned 
icn  have  thought  that  either  the  same  custom  was  observed  in  al- 
lost  all  nationsjor  else  that  the  Jews,  having  been  lately  conquered 
V  Pompey,  conformed  themselves  in  this,  as  in  many  other  re- 
jects, to  the  example  of  their  masters. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  feast  they  lay  on  their  bellies,  their  breasts 
•ing  kept  up  with  pillows,  that  they  might  have  both  their  hands  at 


^  Nat.  Hist.  lib.  33.  cap.  11. 
46 


or  THE  ROMANS. 


o3\ 


350 


THE  NAMES 


liberty;  but,  towards  the  latter  end,  they  cither  rested  themselves 
on  their  elbows,  as  Horace  says, 

Languidus  in  culntumjam  se  conviva  repojict.  Sat.  ii.  4.  38 

And  in  another  place, 

Et  cubito  remancte  presso.  Carm.  1.  Od.  27, 

Or,  if  they  had  not  a  mind  to  talk,  they  lay  all  along  ;  all  which  pos 
tures  are  to  be  seen  in  the  old  marbles,  which  present  the  figure  ot 
an  entertainment. 

They  seem  to  have  brought  in  the  several  courses  in  tables,  and 
not  by  single  dishes ;  as  Servius  observes  on  that  of  Virgil,  J^n.  i 

pQstquam pnma  quies  epuliSf  memxquc  remoLc, 

But  some  will  understand  by  mcnsx  in  that  place,  rather  the 
dishes  than  the  tables ;  because  it  follows  presently  after, 

Dixit  J  ct  in  mensa  laticum  libavit  honorem. 
Unless  we  suppose,  that  as  soon  as  the  table  of  victuals  was  rcmov 
cd,  another  was  set  in  its  plnrr  with  nothing  but  drink. 

They  wanted  no  manner  of  diversion  while  they  were  eating,  hav- 
ing ordinarily  music  andantick  dances,  and  in  ancient  times  combat, 
of  gladiators. 

Plutarch  tells  us  that  Julius  Caesar,  once  in  a  treat  which  hcmad( 
for  the  people,  had  no  less  than  twenty-two  thousand  triclinia, 
which  is  enough  to  give  an  idea  of  their  public  entertainments. 


CMAPTLK  XII 


OF  THE  ROMAN  NAMES. 


THE  Roman  names,  which  many  times  grievously  puzzle  ord: 
nary  readers,  may  be  divided  into  four  sorts,  the  names  of  the  /'^ 
genui^  or  free-born,  the  names  of  the  freed  men  and  slaves,  the  name- 
of  the  women,  and  the  names  of  adopted  persons. 

The  Ingenui  had  three  several  names,  \\\c  firanomen^  the  vovie'. 
^nd  the  cogyiomen.     Hence  Juvenal,  Sat.  v.  126  : 


•Si  quid  tr!fitaveris  unquam 


Iliscere,  taiiquum  fmbcm  triu  nomiufi" 


riie  firanomcn  answers  to  our  Christian  names,  but  was  not  im- 
nosed  till  the  assuming  the  manly  gown.  The  names  of  this  sort 
most  in  use,  together  with  the  initial  letters  which  ordinarily  stand 
lor  them  in  writing,  are  as  follows  : 

A.  Aulus,  C.  Caius,  D.  Dccius,  K.  Cccso,  L.  Lucius,  M.  Manius 
.ind  Marcus,  N.  Numerius,  P.  Publius,  Q.  Quinctus,  T.  Titus. 

AP.  Appius,  CN.  Cneius,  SP.  Spurius,  TI.  Tiberius,  MAM.  Ma- 
niercus,  SER.  Servius,  SEX.  Sextius. 

The  nomen  immediately  followed  \\ic  tir^^nomcn,  answering  to  the 
Grecian  patronymicks.  For  as  among  them  the  posterity  of  iEacus 
had  the  name  iEacidx,  so  the  Julian  family  in  Home  were  so  called 
from  lulus  or  Ascanius.  But  there  were  several  other  reasons  which 
give  original  to  some  oi\.\\i^ iirxnumcJis,  as  living  creatures,  places, 
and  accidents,  which  are  obvious  in  reading. 

The  cosno77icn  was  added  in  the  third  place,  on  the  account  of  dis- 
tinguishing families,  and  was  assumed  from  no  certain  cause,  but  usu- 
ally from  some  particular  occurrence.  But  this  must  be  understood 
principally  of  the  first  original  of  the  name,  for  afterwards  it  was 
licreditary,  though  frequently  changed  for  a  new  one. 

Grammarians'usually  add  a  fourth  name,  which  they  call  Agnomen ; 
but,  this  was  rather  an  honourable  title;  as  Cato  was  obliged  with 
the  constant  epithet  of  the  Wise,  Crassus  of  the  Rich  :  And  hence 
came  the  Africani,  the  Asiatici,  the  Macedonici,  Sec.  Tully  fre- 
quently uses  Cognomen  to  signify  these  appellations,  and  therefore 
there  is  no  need  of  being  so  scrupulous  as  to  express  ourselves  in 
these  cases  by  the  fourth  word. 

The  slaves  in  ancient  times  had  no  name  but  what  they  borrowed 
from  the  Praenomcn  of  their  masters,  as  Luciper,  Publipor,  Marci- 
por,  as  much  as  to  say,  Lucii  puer,  Publii  puer,  Sec.'  When  this 
custom  grew  out  of  fashion,  the  slaves  were  usually  called  by  some 
proper  name  of  their  own,  sometimes  of  Latin,  sometimes  of  Gre- 
cian original ;  this  was  very  often  taken  from  their  country,  as  Da- 
vus,  Syrus,  Gcta,  Stc  Upon  their  manumission  they  took  up  the 
Prxnomcn  and  the  Nomen  of  their  masters,  but,  instead  of  the  Cog- 
nomen, made  use  of  their  former  name  ;  as  Marcus  Tullius  Tiro,  the 
freed  man  of  Cicero.  After  the  same  manner,  it  was  customary  for 
any  foreigner  who  had  been  made  a  free  denizen  of  Rome,  to  bear 
the  Nomen  and  the  Prxnomen  of  the  person  on  whose  account  he 
obtainetl  that  privilege. 

The  women  had  anciently  their  Praenomens  as  well  as  the  men, 
buch  3s  Caia,  Cxcilia,  Lucia,  kc.  But  afterwards  they  seldom  used 

'  QainctiliaT).  Institut.  lib.  1.  cup.  4.    Pl;n.  X.  H.  lib.  33.  c.np.  1 


3.5i> 


THE  NAMES 


01   THE  ROMANS. 


any  other  bcsiucs  the  proper  name  of  their  family,  as  Julia,  Marciuj 
and  tlic  like.  When  there  were  two  sisters  in  a  house,  the  distin- 
guishing terms  were  Major  and  Minor;  if  a  greater  number,  Prima, 
Secundu,  Tenia,  Quarla,  Quinta,  or  by  contraction,  Secundilla, 
Quartilla,  and  Quintilla. 

Adopted  persons  assumed  all  the  three  names  of  him  who  obliged 
them  with  this  kindness,  but,  as  a  mark  of  their  proper  descent,  add- 
ed at  the  end  either  their  former  Nomen  or  Cognomen  ;  the  first 
exactly  the  same  as  before,  (as  Q.  Servilius  Cepio  Agalo  Brutus, 
the  name  of  M.  Junius  Brutus  when  adopted  by  Q.  Servilius  Cepio 
Agalo) :  The  other  with  some  slight  alteration,  as  C.  Octavius,  when 
adopted  by  Julius  Caesar,  was  called  C.  Julius  Cxsar  Octavianus. 

Though  the  right  and  the  ceremony  of  Adoption  be  a  subject  pro- 
perly belonging  to  the  notice  of  civil  lawyers;  yet  it  cannot  be  amiss 
to  give  some  little  hints  about  the  nature  of  that  custom  in  general 
Every  one  knows  the  meaning  of  the  word,  and  that  to  ado/it  a  per- 
son was  to  take  him  in  the  room  of  a  son,  and  to  give  him  a  right  to 
all  privileges  which  accompanied  that  title.  Now  the  wisdom  of  the 
Roman  constitution  made  this  matter  a  public  concern.     When  a 
man  had  a  mind  to  ado/it  another  into  his  family,  he  was  obliged  to 
draw  up  his  reasons,  and  to  offer  them  to  the  college  of  the  Pontificcs, 
for  their  approbation.     If  this  was  obtained,  on  the  motion  of  the 
Pontifices,  the  Consul,  or  some  other  prime  magistrate,  brought  in 
a  bill  at  the  Comilia  Curiata,  to  make  the  adoption  valid.     The 
private  ceremony  consisted  in  buying  the  person  to  be  adopted,  of 
his  parents,  for  such  a  sum  of  money,  formally  given  and  taken;  as 
Suetonius  tills  us  Augustus  purchased  his  grandsons  Caius  and 
Lucius  of  their  Agrippa. 

Aldus  (icllius  makes  a  distinction  between  jidofitio  and  Jrrogatio^ 
as  if  ilie  fornicr  belonged  only  to  the  care  of  the  Prxtor,  and  was 
granted  only  to  persons  under  age ;  the  latter  to  the  cognizance  of 
the  people,  and  was  the  free  act  of  persons  grown  up,  and  in  their 
own  power  ;  but  wc  learn  from  almost  every  page  of  history,  that 
the  Romans  were  not  so  nice  in  their  practice  as  he  is  in  his  obser- 
vation 


CHAPTER   XIII 


OF  THE  RO.MAN   MOXEV. 


IN  enquiring  into  the  difference  and  value  of  the  Roman  coins, 
we  may  begin  with  the  lowest  sort,  that  of  brass.  The  jEs,  then,  or 
most  ancient  money,  was  first  stamped  by  Servius  Tullius,  whereas 
lormerly  it  was  distinguished  only  by  weight,  and  not  by  any  image. 
The  first  image  was  that  of  Pecus,  or  small  cattle,  whence  it  took  the 
name  of  Pccunia.  Afterwards  it  had  on  one  side  the  beak  of  a  ship, 
on  the  other  a  Janus;  and  such  were  the  stamps  of  the  As;  for  as 
for  the  Triens,  Quadrans,  and  Sextans,  they  had  the  impression  of  a 
boat  upon  them.  A  long  time  did  the  Romans  use  this,  and  no  other 
money,  till  after  the  war  with  Pyrrhus,  A.  U.  C.  484,  five  years  be- 
fore the  first  Punic  war,  silver  began  to  be  coined.   The  stamps  upon 
the  silver  Denarii  are  for  the  most  part  waggons  with  two  or  four 
beasts  in  them  on  the  one  side,  and  on  the  reverse  the  head  of 
Rome,  with  a  helmet.     The  Victoriati  have  the  image  of  Victory 
sitting,  the  Sestertii,  usually  Castor  and  Pollux  on  the  one  side,  and 
both  on  the  reverse  the  image  of  the  city ;  so  the  custom  continued 
durmg  the  connnonwealih.     Augustus  caused  Capricorn  to  be  sc: 
upon  his  coin,  and  the  succeeding  emperors  ordinarily  their  own  efll 
gies  :  Last  of  all  came  up  coin  of  gold,  which  was  first  stamped,  six- 
:y-two  years  after  that  of  silver,  in  the  consulship  of  M.  Livius  Sali- 
nator,  with  the  same  stamp  and  images.     So  much  for  the  several 
kinds  of  money ;  we  may  now  proceed  to  the  several  pieces  undei 
every  kind. 

The  As  was  so  named  giiafii  ^Es,  or  brass,  being  of  that  metal,  and 
at  first  consisted  of  lib.  weight,  till,  in  the  first  Punic  war,  the  people 
being  greatly  impoverished,  made  six  Asses  of  the  same  value 
out  of  one.  In  the  second  Punic  war,  Hannibal  pressing  very  hardly 
upon  them,  and  putting  them  to  great  shifts,  the  Asses  were  reduced 
to  an  ounce  a-picce;  and  in  conclusion,  by  a  law  of  Papirius,  were 
brought  down  to  half  an  ounce,  and  so  continued.  The  As  contain- 
ed the  tenth  part  of  the  Denarius,  and  was  in  value  of  our  money 
about  rjb.  qua.  The  Semissib,  or  Scmi-acs,  half  as  much.  The  Triens 
was  the  third  part  of  the  As,  the  Quadrans  the  fourth,  by  some 
called  Triuncis  and  Teruncius,  because  it  contained  3  ounces,  before 
the  value  was  diminished.     The  Sextans,  or  sixth  part,  was  tha' 


>  »4- 


TIIE   MONKY 


OF  THE  ROMANS. 


\vliich  every  head  contiibulcd  to  the  funeral  ol  Mencnius  Agrippa  ; 
but  these  \verc  not  suflicicnt  for  use,  and  therefore  there  were  other 
pieces  made,  as  the  Uncia,  or  twelfth  part  of  the  pound,  the  Semun- 
cia  of  the  wciij;hL  of  4  (hachms,  and  the  Sextula,  or  sixth  part  of  an 
ounce.  Varro  s[)eaks  too  of  the  Decussis,  in  value  10  Asses,  or  of  a 
Deiiariusi  the  Viccssis  of  two  Denarii,  and  so  upwards  to  the  Cen- 
tussis,  the  greatest  brass  coin,  in  value  100  Asses,  10  Denarii,  and 
of  our  money  6s.  3d. 

lor  the  silver  money,  the  old  Denarius  was  so  named,  Ijecausc  it 
contained  Denos  il^res  or  Asses,    10  Asses,  though   its  weight  and 
value  was  not  at  all  limes  alike  ;  for  the  old  Homan  Denarius,  during 
the  commonwealth,  weighed  the  seventh  part  of  an  ounce,  and  wa. 
in  value  of  'Mir  money  Hd.  oh.  (j.  wiih  \  v  :  but  the  new  Denarius, 
which  came  up  in  the  time  of  Claudius,  or  a  little  before,  weighed 
exactly  an  Attic   Drachm;  so  that  the  Greek  writers  when  they 
speak  of  it,  for  every  Denarius  mention  a  Drachm,  which  of  oui 
money  was  worth  7d.  ob.;  coniputaiions  are  generally  made  with  re- 
ference to  this  new  sort  of  Denarius;  if  respect  be  had  to  the  ancient 
limes,  then  all  reckonings  arc  to  be  increased  one  seventh  part,  for 
|ust  so  much  the  old  one  exceeded  the  new.     When  we  meet  with 
Bigatus  and  (^uadrigatus,  we  must  understand  the  same  coin  as  the 
Denarius,  so  called  from  the  IJigx  and  Quadrigae  stamped  upon  it. 
There  was  another  coin  called  Victoriatus,  from  the  image  of  Victory 
upon  it,  fii-<  damped  in  Rome  by  an  order  of  Clodius,  in  value  hall 
a  Denarius,  and  therefore  named  also  Quinarius,  as  containing  the 
value  of  five  Asses;  it  was  worth  of  our  n^oney  3d.  oh.  y.  The  next 
that  follows,  and  which  nrakes  so  much  noise  in  authors,  is  the  Ses- 
tertius, so  called  (juasi  Sesfjuitertius,  because  it  contained  two  Asses 
and  a  half,  being  half  the  Victoriatus,  and  a  fourth  part  of  the  Dena- 
rius.    It  is  often  called  absolutely  Nummus,  because  it  was  in  most 
frequent  use,  as  also  Sestertius  Nummus;  it  was  worth  of  our  money 
Id.  oh.  (ju.  The  Obolus  was  the  sixth  part  of  the  Denarius,  equal  to 
the  Attic  co6x\<i,  as  much  as  Id.  (jn.  with  us.     The  Libella  was  the 
tenth  part  of  the  Denarius,  and  equal  in  value  to  the  As;  so  called  as 
a  little  pound,  being  supi)osed  equal  to  a  pound  of  brass,  worth  of 
our  money  oh.  iju.  The  Sembella,as  if  written  Scmi-libella,  was  half 
this.    And  lastly,  the  Tcruncius  was  the  fortieth  part  of  the  Dena- 
rius, so  named  because  it  was  worth  three  ounces  of  brass,  being 
inconsiderable  in  value,  and  next  to  nothing. 

To  come  at  last  to  the  golden  coins;  those  most  remarkable  were 
the  Aurei  Denarii,  so  termed,  either  because  they  had  the  sanic 
stamp  as  the  silver  Denarii,  or  because  in  bigness  they  much  resem- 
bled them.     The  old  Aureus  stamped  during  the  tommonwealtl!. 


355 


weighing  two  silver  Denarii,  worth  of  our  money  ITs.  id.  ob,  ciua. 
The  new  Aureus,  stamped  about  the  beginning  of  the  empire,  was 
lighter  than  the  former  by  one  seventh  part,  weighing^two  drachms, 
worth  about  15s.  of  our  money.     Thus  they  continued  Didrachmi 
for  the  time  of  the  first  five  Cxsars;  and  then  lost  much  in  their 
weight  by  the  fraud  and  avarice  of  the  succeeding  princes.      In 
Nero^s  time  they  wanted  a  few  grains,  under  Galba  a'little  more,  un- 
der Nerva,  Trajan,  and  Adrian,  no  fewer  than  eight ;  under  Vespa- 
sian ten,  and  the  like  under  Antoninus  Pius,  M.  Aurelius  Severus, 
and  others.   Domitian,  indeed,  had  in  his  reign  restored  to  the  Aurei 
Iheir  full  weight  of  two  Drachms,  and  so  did  Aurelian  afterwards, 
which  was  the  last  regulation  of  the  matter,  while  Rome  continued 
to  be  the  seat  of  the  empire. 

The  marks  of  the  ordinary  coins  arc  as  follow.  The  As,  because 
at  first  it  was  a  pound  weight,  is  thus  expressed,  L.  and  the  Sester- 
tius,  because  ,t  contained  in  value  two  pounds  of  brass  and  a  half 
thus,  HS  or  I  LS.  Tlie  mark  of  the  Quinarius  or  \'ictoriatus  was 
V .  and  of  the  Denarius  X  or  : ! : 

The  sums  in  use  among  tlie  Romans  were  chiefly  three  •  the 
Sesterfum,  the  Libra,  and  the  Talent.     The  Sestertium,  contained 
a  thousand  Sestertii,  about  71.  16s.  and  rjd.  of  our  money.     We  do 
not  indec<l,  find  it  in  any  ancient  author  in  the  singular  number,  a, 
.t  IS  now  used,  but  we  very  often  meet  with  it  in  the  plural,  thouirh 
with  the  same  signification.     In    reckouing  by  Sesterces,  the  Ro- 
mans had  an  art,  which  may  be  understood  by  these  three  rules  • 
the  first  .s,  If  a  numeral  noun  agree  in  case,  gender,  and  number! 
with  Sestertius,  then  it  denotes  precisely  so  many  Sestertii,  as  dece., 
Smu,  just  so  many ;  the  second  is  this,  if  a  numeral  noun  of  an- 
other case  be  joined  with  the  genitive  plural  of  Sestertius,  it  denote^ 
so  many  thousand,  as  decern  Se.tertium  signifies  ten  thousand  Ses' 
ertn.     Lastly,  if  the  numeral  adverb  be  joined,  it  denotes  so  many 
hundred  thousand,  as  decic.  SesUrUum  signifies  ten  hundred  thou- 
sand Sestcrtu;  or  if  the  numeral  adverb  be  put  by  itself,  the  si^nifi- 
cation  IS  the  same  ;  Decies  or  Vigesies  stand  for  so  many  hundred 
thousand  Sestertii,  or,  as  they  say,  so  many  hundred  Sestertia. 

1  he  Libra,  or  pound,  contained  twelve  ounces  of  silver,  or  ninetv- 
six  Drachms,  or  later  Denarii,  and  was  worth  of  our  money  Zl      ' 

The  third  sum  was  the  talent,  which  contained  twentv-four  Ses- 
ter  la,  and  six  thousand  later  Denarii,  being  the  same  with  the  Attic 

tISr '    Z  '"^  "T"  °^  '^"'"''  '^*^"=''  ^'"^  O"'^'™''  'he  Romans 
took  from  the  Greeks,  as  the  Greeks  borrowed  from  them  the  Libra 

and  the  Lncia.     The  talent  was  worth  of  our  present  money  isri. 


r>56 


TIIL  MONFV  OF  THE  ROMANo. 


Wc  meet  too  with  a  lesser  sum,  termed  the  Sportula,  being  what 
the  rich  men  gave  to  every  one  of  their  clients  after  having  waited 
upon  them  in  puljlic,  and  now  and  then  at  other  times,  as  they 
pleased  to  appoint;  it  was  in  value  about  a  hundred  Quadrantes,  or 
I8d.  ob,  <jua.  Formerly,  instead  of  this  sum,  ihcy  used  to  deal  .• 
Dole  to  the  clients  without  the  door,  who  received  the  victuals  in  a 
little  basket  made  of  a  kind  of  broom,  called  Sportum. 


INDEX 


f 


>ii 


•  Ampllatio 

M...LrTi,  a  sort  of  Soldiers,  Page  200     wl'"!. 

^'''^"''  136,206     Ancylia 


Accusatio 

Acilius  lilabrlo 

Actionem  intcndcrc,  vid.  cdt  re 

\ctiones  I.cg-is 

Actium  (the  Fi^ht  there) 
Actor 

Actuarios 

All  bcstijis 

Ad  ludos 

Ad  metalla 

Addictio 

Adopt!  o 

Adrian 

\(hocati 
-iides  sacrze 
-Ediciila 
-•Ediles 

— ■ Cerealcs 

Curules 


Plebis 

-Kdilitii 

/Kmylian 

-l-jnylius 

-i:neas 

-Kneatores 

•Equi 

A^arium  faccrc 

^^re  diruti 

•Es 

-l^slimatio  litis 
i:)tius 

Agones 

Aj^orialia 

Marie,  King-  of  the  Goths 

Aibo-galcrus 

Ala: 

Alexander  Severus 

Alicata  Chlamys 

^llocutio 

^nibarvalia 

^nibire  mugistratuni 

Vmfutus 


l5i 

or 

148 
160 
41 
147 
136 
158 
Ibid, 
ibid. 
149 
352 
45 
147 
61 
ibid. 
130 
ibid, 
ibid, 
ibid. 
201 
47 
67 
27 
213 
32 
127 
223 
253 
152 
50 
217 
102 
108 
50 
309 
200 
46 
3 
215 
84 
120 
149 
47 


152 

28,29 

270 

30 

92 


Andabat.-e  (a  sort  of  Gladiators) 

,    .       ,  268,270 

Animadvcrsio  152 

Aniiuani  in  primo  ore,  or  in  pri- 

mis  labris  tcnere 
Anna  Pcrenna 
Annus  bissextilis 
Anlhemius 

Antony  14.  rnd.  Marc. 
Antiochu^,  King-  of  Syria 
Antoninus  Caracalla 

Vid.  Marcus  and  Lucius. 
Pius 


324 

109 

104. 

51 

37 
46 


29? 


Antoninus's  Pillar 

Aper 

Apex 

Aphractum 
Apollo 

Apparitores 

Appius  Claudius 

Appius  the  Decemvir 

Aquae  et  ignis  interdictio 

Aquaeducts 

Aquila  (Standard  of  a  Legion) 

Aquilx  prxesse 

Aquitania  (made  a  Province) 

Arabia  (made  a  Province) 

Arbiter  bibendi 

Arbitri 

Arches 

Area  of  the  Amphitheatre 
Arena 

Aries  (the  Battering. Rara) 
Armatura 

Armenia  (made  a  Province) 

Armillae 

Armorum  concussio 

Arms  of  the  Romans 

Arrogatio 

Aruspex 

Aruspices,  rid,  Haruspices. 

As 


45 

75 
48 


308 


244 
214 
244 
135 
2,  84 
132 
155 
77 
202 
ibid. 
41 
45 
249 
147 
7S 
65 
ibid. 
238,  239 
220 
45 
224 
214 
206 
352 
102 


o5of  &c. 


INDEX. 


4; 


Abcaimis 

Assyria  (mudc  a  Province) 

\ttelan2e  (Sort  of  iMays) 

Athens  (taken  by  Sylla) 

Atrati 

Attains  (Kin.cj  of  Pcr^amns) 

Attila  the  Iliin 

Auctorati 

Avcns  (River) 

Aventinus  (an  Alban  King") 

Aug;iirics 

Augurs 

August  ulus 

Augustus,  vid.  Octavius. 

Avitus 

Aulus  Plavitius 

Aurel  Denarii 

Avirelian 

Auspices 

Xuspicia 


28 

45 

'270 

.;8 

300 

37 

50 

266 

56 

ibid. 

85—87 

ibid. 

51 


■12 
o54 

48 

-90 

204 


Caligati 
Caligx 


Speculator!  cf 


ibid. 
312,  31  . 

4'J 
32,  3.) 


S7 


B. 


Bagnios 

Balbiniis 

Balista 

Barritus 

Busilic?e 


76,77 

46 

238,  240 

214 

69,70 


Basilicus  (a  throw  on  the  Dice)      249 
Battalia  ot*  tlie  Romans  209 

Beds  ot*  Images  carried  in  Proces- 
sion at  Funerals 
Bencticiarii  ^   J^^ 

Bestiarii  i5^»  '^^^^ 

Bidental  '^22 

Bigatus  ^^     '^^/^ 

nigx  ~^4,  j54 

Biremis  -^4 

Bissextus  dies 
Blood-lettting,  a  runishmeut  of 

the  Roman  Soldiers 
Borrowing  and  I.endingof  Wives 

iimontr  the  Romans,  probably  a 


104 


00 -» 


mistake 
Bridges  of  Rome 
Britain 
Ilrutus 
Buceinatorch. 
JBuccina: 
Buceula 
Bulla  aurea 
Burning  of  the  Dead 
Bustum 

C. 

Cseliolus,  or  Minor  Ca;lius 

Cxrites 

Cicrltum  tabuls 

Ca:sar 

Calcei  Lunati 

Mulki 

Calculi 


318—320 

60 

42,  43 

^0.  40,  41 

213 

ibid. 

208 

298 

321 


55 


234 

127,  234 

39—41 

310 
310,311 

247 


('aligula 
(lamillus 
Camp  (Form  and  Division  of  it)    213 

Campagi  ^|J^ 

Campidoctorcs  "^^ 

Campus  Martins  55,68 

Campus  Ksquinalis  56 

Figulinus  Jbiu. 

Campus  Sccleratus  96 

Candidatus  1*0 

I'rincipis  V28 

Canicula  (a  Throw  on  the  Dice)    24iy 

Cannx>  (the  Battle  there) 

Cantabria  (subdued) 

Capitol 

Cappadocia  (made  a  Province) 

Caps  and  Hats  ordinarily  used  by 

the  Romans 
Capitc  ccnsi 
Caput  porcinum 
Carceres 
Carinus 
Carmentalia 
Carmen  Saliarc 
Carnifex 

Carthage  (destroyed; 
Cams 
Cassius 
Castra  jestiva 

hybcrna 

stativa 

Catapulta 

Catastaslsof  tlie  Drama 

Catastroi)he  of  the  Drama 

Catilinarian  Conspiracy 

Catti 

Cave  a 

Celeres 

Celeustes 

Cella  of  a  temple 

Cenotaphia 

Censors 

Censorii 

Census 

Census  put  for  a  rich  Man 

Centesimatio 

Centumviri  htibus  judicandis 

Centuria  prxrogativa 

Centuries 

or  Ordincs,  of  soldiers,  19.^ 

Centurions  20() 

Centurionum  primus  201 

Ccrealia  J^; 

CestMs  (the  Exercise  described)  2^ 
Chariot  Races  »^»J^- 

Charistia  }^\ 

Chirodotx  *^y- 

Chlamys  ^^^ 

ViiL  Alicate 
Chorui  281,  kc 


ot 
41 
61 
41 


30i> 
14: 
211 
67 
48 
108 
92 
1% 
37 
4K 
40,  41 
215 
ibid 
ibid. 
238,  24() 
278 
ibid. 
38 
4.> 
66 

1.Tr> 

244 
63 
341 
126,  127 
201 
126 
18C 
22;. 
147 

14-; 

141 


Cicen, 

Cimbri 

Cincture  of  the  Gown 

Cinctus  (iabimis 

Circcnsian  Shows 

Circi 

(/ircus  Maxlmus 

Circuitio  \  Igilum 

Civilus  quercus 

Civitates  fcrderatx 

Infra  classem 

Classes 

Classic!  auctorcs 

(^lassicum 

Claudius 

Claudius  the  Second 

Clavi 

('lavum  pangere 

(-Ixlia 

(■leopalra 

Clients 

Cloacrc 

Closing  the  V.ya  of  departi 

Clusium 

fJocles 

Cocmptio 

Cncnaculum 

Cocnatio 

Cognomen  ♦ 

(yohors  prxtoria 

prima 

Collatinus 
("ollis  Dianrc 

Ilortulonmi 

Pincius 

Quirinalis 

Collis  Viminalis 
Collocatio 
Colonies 
Columna  bcllici 

rostrata 

Columns  or  Pillars 

Comcdv 

Comitia 

Adumbrata 

Calata 

Centuriata 

Curiata 

Tributa 

Comitium 
Commodus 
Commons 

Companies  of  Charioteers 
Vid.  Factio. 

the  Golden 

the  Purple 

the  Silver 

Conclamatio 
Concussio  armorum 
Confarreatio 
Congiaria 
Conquisitores 
Consecration  of  Temples 


37 


>/■     - 


295 
296 
251 

67 
ibid. 

218 

235 

143 

ibid. 

ibid. 

214 

42 

47 

302—304 

123 

32 

41 

112 

78 

ng  Friends 

325 

33 

32 

315 

347 

ibid. 

3.)0,  351 

198 

ibid. 

30 

56 

55f  56 

66 

55 

56 

327 

233 

75 

'.bill. 

74 

278 

Ul-_146 

143 

141 

141^143 

ibid. 

141,  142 

69,72 

46 

112 

253 

254 

ibid. 

ibid. 

327 

214 

315 

224 

193 

62 


JNDEX. 

38    Consecration  of  Emperors 

of  Friends 

Constantine  the  Great 

Constantinople 

Constantius 

CJdorus 

Consulares 
Consuls 

Consules  ordlnarii 
suifecti 


Cornelius  Scipio 

Cornicines 

Cornua  (Music) 

Cornua  (Parts  of  the  Army 

Corona  venire  sub 

castrensis 

civica 

muvalis 

navalis 

obsidionalis 

rostrata 

triumphalis 

vallaris 

Coronx  aureae 
Corsica  (subdued) 
Corvus  (Engine) 
Corybantes 
Cothurnus 
Cotlian  Aljis 
Crassus 
Crepida: 
Cretata  ambitio 
Crimen  adulterli 
ambitus 

falsi 

inter  slcarios 

majestatis 

parricidii 

pecnlatus 

perduellionis 

plagii  • 

repetundarum 

venefieii 

vis  publica 

Crista 

Crupellarii 

Cucullus 

Culcitrx 

Culeus 

Cultrarii 

Cuneus 

Curetes 

Curia  Hostilla 

Pompeii 

Curix 

Curio  Maximus 

Curiones 

Cybele's  Priests 


D. 

Daci 

Dacia  (made  a  Province'. 


) 


344 

ibid. 
48 
49 

ibid. 

48 

201 

121 

122 

ibid. 

37 

213 

ibid. 
200 
233 
225 
224 
225 

ibid. 

ibid. 

ibid. 

ibid. 

ibid. 

ibid. 


35 


241 

96,98 

279,  280 

43 

39 

312 

295 

150 

149 

150 

ibid. 

139,  149 

150,  157 

139,  149 

143 

149 

139, 149 

150 

149 

208 

269 

305,  308 

348 

157 

102 

211 

55,  96,  98 

69 

ibid- 

69,  141 

142 

ibid. 

98 


45 
5bid 


INDEX. 


Dalmatia  (subdued) 

Damnum 

Dapes  Sallarcs 

Decemjuf^is 

Decemviri 

— — — — —  litibus  jiidicandls 


272 
41 
154 
93 
254 
131 
135 


Keepers  of  the    Sibylline 

96,  97 


Oracles 
Decii 
Dcclmato 
Decius 
Deciima 
Decumani 
Decuris 
Decuriones 
Decursio  at  Funerals 
Decussis 
Deductores 
Defensio 

Dcfiuuti  pro  rostris  laudatio 
Dejectio  c  rupe  'larpeia 
Delatores 
Delubrum 
Denanus 
Decennulia 
Depontani 
Deportati 
Deportatlo 
Dcsig-natoros 
Devoting-  of  the  (icncrals 
Diadem 
Diadumen 
Di!)uplnis 
Dictaior 
Didlus  Julian 
Didiiichmi 
Dies  Htri 

-, comitiales 

coniperendini 

fasti 

■        festi 

... intcrcisi 

prxliares 

profcsti 

postridtiani 

St  at  I 

Diem  dicore  reo 

Dinarreasio 

Diocleslan 

Dirihitores 

Disci' ptatio  causjc 

Discus  (the  Exercise  described) 

Divis  suis  rem  gerere 

Divorces 

Do.  dico,  addico 

Dolabrx 

Dv.mitian 

Duumviri  classis 

—  (Keepers  of  the   Sibylline 
Oracles)  96, 97 


205 
223 

47 
235 
ibid. 
Ml,  200 
203 
339 
354 
120 
151 

72 
156 
154 

61 

342 

144 

156 

155 

294 

205 

310 

46 

306 

122—124 

46 

355 

106 

ibid. 

ibid. 
105,  106 

ibid. 
105 
1U6 

ibid. 

ibid. 

ibid. 
153 
243 
315 
243 
48 
145 
148 
252 
124 
204 
318 
106 
239 
44 
244 


Duumviri   perduellionis,  or  capitale> 

135 
Dux  lection  is  201 


i:. 


Kdere  actionem  14S 

Kdictu  (Hills  for  a  show  of  Ciladiators) 

270 

Ex<T</VTj^ic  »bi(l. 

EnKtti'f^iKy^.';  243 

Ii>.<T*'§  250 

Klatio  328 
Fdcphants  ruiming  in  the  Circus    254 

Emeriti  197 

Ensigns  213 

Entertainments  346 

Epilasis  of  the  Drama  278 

Epula,  or  Lectisternia  100 

Epula-  iblJ. 

Epulones,  or  Septemvirl  epulonum 

96,  100 
E({ues,  Equcstris  Ordlnis,  et  E<iucstn 
loco  natus,  the  difference  between 

them  113 

Equestria  66 

Equi  redditio  195 

Equitatns  Justus  199 

Ei|uite.s     "  191 

Equitum  probatio  ibid. 

recensio  194,  195 

transvectio  ibid. 

Equum  adimcre  126 
Espousals  313 
Es.sedarii  268,270 
Essedum  ibid. 
Evander  87 
Eudoxla  50 
Evocatio  deorum  tutelarlum  236 
Evocati  197 
Euplirates  (the  Bounds  of  the  Em- 
pire) 45 
Excubix  217 
Exercitia  ad  palum  219 
Exilium  154,  155 
Exire  271 
Exodium  279 

Atellanicum  ibid. 

Extisj)ices  87 

Extraordinarii  200,  216 


F. 


Fabius  Maximus 
Factio  alba 
prasina 

russata 

vencta 


"6 


o 

253 
ibid, 
ibid, 
ibid. 


Vid.  Company  of  Charioteers. 
Fari  iria  verba  106 

Fasces  122 


INDEX. 


Fascia 

Fascis 

Favctc  linguib 

Faustulus 

Feasts  in  honour  of  t!ic  Dead 

Februaca 

Feciales 

Felicitas 

Femoralia 

Feralia 

Ferentarii 

Ferix  conceptivy 

impcrativx 

privat.e 

stativae 

Fescennine  Verses 


Festivals    in  the 


307 
220 
101 

28 
342 

83 

93,  231 

214 

307 

108,  342 

206 

105 

ibid. 

106 

105 

275 


IJoman   Kalendar 
108—111 
181 
90,  91 
90 
ibid. 
91 


Filius  familia; 
Flamen  Dialis 

Martialis 

Quirinalib 

Flaminica 

FJaminia,  or  Flammcum  (the  Flamen*s 


Cap) 

Flanmieum  (the  Bridc'hVeil) 

Floralia 

Foederatae  civltatcs 

FoUis  (a  sort  of  IJall) 

Fora 

Civilia 

Venalia 

Forfex   (a  way  of  drawing  up   an 


90 

315 

110 

235 

250 

69 

70 

71 


Army) 

Form  of  Absolution 

of  Ampliation 

of  Condemnation 

Forums 

Forum  Augusti 

Boarium 

Cupedinarium 

Julium 

Eatinum 

Nerv.c 

Olitorium 

Palladium 

Pistorium 

Komanum 

Suarium 

■  Trajani 
Transilorium 


Fortuna  Caesaris 

Fossa 

Fratrcs  Arvales 

Freedom  bv  Manumission 

by  Testament 

Frontis  inustio 
Frumentum  acstimatum 

decumanum 

emptum 

■ honorarium 

iraperatum 


Funditores 
Funcra  acerba 


211 
152 

ibid. 

ibid. 

70 

ibid. 

71 

72 

70 

ibid. 

71 

72 

71 

72 

70 

72 

71 

ibid. 

214 

217 

84 

114 

ibid. 

152 

235,  236 

235 

ibid. 

236 

ibid. 

206 

324 


Funera  larvata 

Funerals 

Funeral  Ceremonies  before 

rial 
ill    tiig    ^ct  of 


321 — 346 
the  Bu- 


liurvinar 


527 


—  after  the  Burial 

342 
326 


323 

•    322 

ibid. 

324 

323 

157 

ibid. 

222 


43 

206 

309 

48 

206,  308 

98 

47 

ibid. 

247 

60 

33 


2o: 


Funcrex 

Fuuus  censorium 

indiciivum 

publicum 

taciturn 

translalitium 

vulgare  or  plebcium 

Furca  ignominiosa 
Furca  pa^nalis 
Fusles 


G. 


Galba 

Galea 

Galcriculum 

Galcrius 

Galerus 

Gain  (Priests  of  Cyb-Ie) 

Gallic  nus 

Callus 

Games 

Gates  of  Home 

(iauls  sack  Home 

General  ^^ 

Genseric,  King  of  the  A'andids        "ol 

(dadiators  o^^ 074. 

Gladiatores  catervarii  268 

fiscales  ibid. 

meridiani  ibid. 

• ordinarii  ibid* 

— poslulatitii  ibid.* 

(jlobjis  (Way  of  drawini?  up  an  Ar- 

,"iy)  211 

Glycerius,  vid.  Liarius  Si 

Gordian  ac 

Gratian  ^q 

Gregorian  Style  104 

Gubernator  244. 


H. 

Ilabet,  or  hoc  habct  (a  Form  of  Speech 

used  by  Gladiators  after  giving  a 

Blow)  271 

Habit  of  the  Bomans  "     295—313 

Hannibal  35  3^ 

Harangues  of  the  Generals  215 

Harpastuin  250 

Haruspices  §7 90 

Hasta  pura  224 

vendi,  sub  135 

Hastx  206 

Hastati  193, 201 


INDEK. 


INDEX. 


il 


Hcllogabalus 

llcptac'inon 

Hcptcivs 

Ucrciilcs,  his  Chapel  near  tlic 

plilthcalrcs  ami  ('ircos 
Hcxaclinoii 
Hcxcres 
Ilippu},^incs 
llirtiiis 
fllstrioncs 
Hoc  a<;'c 
Honorary  tomb? 
Honorius 
Hoploniachi 
Hostiu 


46 

348 

24  > 

Ain- 

27o 

34  { 

24.^. 

242 

40 

279 

101 

341 

50 

270 

100 


M6 


160 
114 

159 
190 

In  jus  renin  vocurc  .  V^^ 

rii  jus  vocutusuut  cut  aat  salistlet  ibid. 
.ImaTnenUim  cahinmiK  ibid. 

Justinian  ^^ 


Jus  honorarium 

—  imaginis 

—  I*apirianum 

—  Iriuni  libiTorurn 


I.  J 

.lanicuhim 
.Tanus  Imns 

Medius 

Sumnniii 

Ida:  Dactyli 

Ides 

Jcntacuhim 

I^^nobilcs 

li^noniinia 

lilicct 

lUyric.uin  (subdued; 

(mmolatio 

Immunes 

Imperator,  viil.  general. 

Iinpcratores  Contubernales 

In  cruccm  actio 

In  intcg-rum  restitutio 

[nfra  aliqucm  cubarc 

Infcrix 

Infulx 

Ingcnul 

ln(iuisitio 

Intersessio 

Intervcx 

Jovian 

Ipsulx 

Irrogatio 

Juba 

Judex  Quxstioni-> 

Judg-ments 

Judices  selccti 

Judicia  centumviralla 

Judicium  calumnix 

falsi 

Jugum  mitti,  sub 
Jugurtha 
Jugurthinc  War 
Julian 

year,  Account  of 

Jupiter  Fcretrius 

Jurevocatre  (Centuries  and  Tribes) 

144 

Jki>  civile  16^ 

—  civitatis  ^'*^ 

—  dicere  and  judicare  (the  differ- 
ence between  them)  125 


)» 

(ji 

ibid. 

ibid. 

98 

107 

347 

114 

154,  155 

341 

41 

101 

235 

216 

156 

149 

349 

342 

101 

114,  350 

153 

118,129 

133 

49 

92 

153 

40 

150 

-154 

150 

135 

149 

ibid. 

zoo 

Ol 

ibid. 

49 
104 
230 


Kulcndi* 

K5t7*3-T^W|V.5t/« 

Kissing  of  the  deail  Hody 

Knights 

Estates 


I.. 


107 
244 

ibid. 
324 
112 

ibid. 

Ul« 


276,  277 

O 


^^05 
308 


l.abcrius  the  Mimic 
l.acernu 

Laccmata  arnica 

I.aciniam  traherc  -^^ 

Lxna  ^0^* 

Lanista;  266 
Titus  Largius  Flavius  the  first  Die-  ^ 

tat  or  123 

Latins  ^2 

Latinus  23 

l.atio  sontcnti^c  l^*- 

Lutiiun  27 

Latrones  f^^ 

Latrunculi  247 
Laudatio  (a  Custom  at  Trials)  151,  152 

Lavinia  2^ 

l.avinium  l^l'j* 

Laurentia  *"'"• 

Laurentum  28 

Laws  .  ^^^-^^! 
de  adulterio  et  pudicitia        184 

Agrarian  l^'t 

de  ambitu  1^<^ 

of  the  Assemblies  and  Meet- 

165 
163 
and 


mgs 

— -  of  CitiTiens 
of  Constitutions,   Laws, 

Privileges 

of  Corn 

of  Crimes 

of  Expenses 

Falsi 

of  Judges 

of  Judgment 

of  Magistrates 

de  Maj estate 

of  Martial  Affairs 

Miscellaneous 

of  Money,  Usury,  &c. 

de  paricidis 


170 

176 

183 

176 

185 

181 

182 

168 

183 

178 

189 

180 

185 


Laws  de  pecuniis  rcpetundls  187 

of  Provinces  and  their  Governors 

171 


of  Religion 

of  the  Senate 

tic  sicariis  ct  veneficis 

de  Tutelis 

de  Vi 


IGI 
1G7 
184 
179 
185 
of  Wills,  Heirs,  and  Legacies  180 
Leagues  (how  made)  ^-l 

Lecti  tricliniorum,  or  tricliniares   348 
I^ecticx,  or  Lecti  (Funeral  Beds)  332 

139,  140,  203 
Consulares  ^04 

Praetorii 


.ex  ficnutia 

lllcronica 

Hirtia 

Ilortcnsia 


i6S 
176 
168 
170 


—  Juha        172,  173,  175, 177,  182, 

184,  188 

de  Adulterio  184 

do  Ambitu  187 

de  Civitate  164 

■ —  de  maritandisordinibus  189 


Papia 


Junia 


Lcgat  1 


Licinia 

Sacrata 


ibid. 
Legatio  libera  1^7 

Leges  (lujw   they  diflercd  from  Pie 

biscitu) 
Legions 
JuCpidus 
I^essus 
Levy  of  the  Confederates 

of  tlie  foot 

of  the  Horse 

Lex  Acilia 

Acilia  Calpurnia 

A:\'k\ 

.'lOmilia 

Ampia  Labicnu 

Antia 

Antoniu 

Apuleia 

Atllia 

Atiiiia 

Attia 

Aufidia 

,         Aurclia 
(J.TCcilia 

('ivcilia  Dlilia 


146 

198 

41 

3;>0 

196 
192 
194 
188 
186 
165 
177 
171 
177 
162,  169,  152,  184 
183 
179 
170 
162 
186 
170,  182 
169,  188 
170 


—  Ciecilia  de  jure  Italix  et  tributis 
tollendis  189 

—  Calpurnia  137 

—  Cainpunia  175 

—  Cassia  166,  167,  174 

—  Cincia  1^3 

—  Claudia  or  Clodia  190 

—  Claudia  165,  167,  181 
-—  Clodia,  161,  165,  169,  172,  176, 

185,  189 

—  Ccjelia  l66 

—  Cornelia,     IGI,    162,    164,    168, 
169,170,  171,   J72,   175,  177,   182, 

18^.,  184,  188 


Curia 

.-i —  Didia 

Domitia 

Labia 

Pannia 

Flaminia 

Flavia 

Furia 

Fusia 

Gabinia 


Gelii«  Cornelisi 


165 
177 
162 
186 
176 
174 
175 
180 
165 
166,  1C7, 178  180,  183 


—  Lxtoria 

—  Licinia 
Albutia 

Mutia 


1/ivia 


de  Sodalitiis 
de  Sociis 


Mam  ilia 

Manilia 

Manlia 

Marcia 

Maria 

Maria  Porcia 

Marita 

Memmia 

Muneralis 

<^)gulnia 

()l)pia 

Orchiu 

Papia 

Papia  Popprea 

Papiria 


I) 


apyna 


—  Plautia 

—  Pompeia 

—  Porcia 

—  Portoria 

—  Pupia 

—  liemniia 

—  Koscia 

—  Sacrata  militaris 
Rcatinia  or  Scantinia 


ibid. 
161,  188 
171 
169 
179 
162,  174,  177 
171 
164 
186 
181 
164 
175 
166,  179 
161 
169 
166 
178 
189 
182 
183 
161 
177 
176 
162,  163 
189 
161 
166 
ISl,  185 
170,  182,  186,  187 
163 
189 
167 
183 
162 
178 
184 


Scmpronia      163,  166,  168,  172, 

174,  176,  178,  180,  181 

Scntia  167 

Semilia  164,  175,  181,  188 

Scxtia  Licinia  161,  168 

Silvani  et  Cabonis  164 

Sulpicia  164,  167,  178 


165 


—  Sulpitiu  Scmpronia 

Terentia  Cassia 

'I'horiu 

'I'itia 

'i'rehonia 

Tuliia 

de  Vacationc 

Valeria 

\'aleriu  Horati;i 

Varia 

■"     \'atinla 


161 
176 
174 

169,  173 

173 
1(>7,  186 

162 
l(>o,  169,  180 

163 
164,  183 

173 


INDLX 


INDEX 


J.ex  Viilia  nniiall>5 

Voconiu 

1/iuriuH  or  (.lyccriu^ 
i;ib;iruina  prima 
Libutio 

Llb«  :11a 

I.ibclli  (Rills  tor  a  SworJ 

Liber  ccnsii,  he. 

Li  belt as 

Libcrtj 

Lib'-rtiiii 

Libltina 

Libilinarli 

l/ibra 

Llbrl  c'lcpbantiiii 

Liburnica: 

Licinivis 

Lictores 

Litem  intcndcre 

LiUr.c 

Litui 

Li  tuns 

Livius  Aiulroiiicus 

Lorica 

Luci 

Lucins  Antoniiuis 

Lucius  Uui alius 

Lucretia 

Lucius  annuus 

Lucullus 

Ludi  Actiucl 

ApoHinarcF 

■  Aiififustales 

Ca]>ilolini 

Cei-eaks 

Circenses 

Compitalitii 

Consualcs 

Dccennales 

Floralcs 

Funebres 

J  u  venules 

JuvcnUilis 

Magni 

Marti  ales 

Mei^aUtiSL'^ 

Miscelli 

-  Nalalitii 

Palatini 

Pontificules 

(iuiiiqueniiales 

Uomaui 

SacerdolaU's 

Ssecu  lares 

Sceuici 

'I'riuuipluileb 

Vicluricc 

Vutivi 

Lmlii    I'd  lllstriones  at  a 

Lup.i 
Lupercalia 

Lupcici 

Fabiani 

Uuincliiiaui 


-I'lav) 


168 
180 
51 
102 
ibid. 
3.5 1 
270 
115 
21  i 
111,  136 
ibid. 
326 
ibid. 
355 
63 
243 
48 
136 
148 
226 
213 
ibid. 
275 
208 
64 
46 
32 
30 
344 
38 
292 
287 
289 
288 
2cS6 
251 
289 
288 
293 
286 
294 
293 
ibid. 
292 
287 
286 
293 
ibid. 
^S9--29i 
265 
292 
288 
265 
289 
274 
J93 
292 
ibid. 
Funeral  331 
28 
82,  108 
82 
83 
Ibid. 


Lustrum 
condcre 


Lying  on  Coucbes  al  tlic  1  able 


127 
ibid. 

347 


M. 

Mapster  equitum 
Mag-'st  rates 

when  admitteil 

w  ben  designed 

Magistratus  curules 
fxtraordinarii 


ma  j  ores 

!iiinores 

mixti 

ordinarii 

Fatricii 

I'lebcii 

I'rovincialos 


~  Urbani 


Magnentius 

Majorianus 

.Mandatores 

Mandatum 

Manipulus 

Matdius 

Mapj)a 

Marc  Antony 

Marcus  Antoninus 

Marius 

Marriage  bv  use 


proper  time  i'ov 


124,  133 

119 

144 

ibid. 

119 

ibid. 

ibid. 

ibid. 

ibid. 

ibid. 

ibid. 

119 

ibid. 

ibid. 

49 

57 

154 

147 

198,  201 

35 

255 

40,  41 

46 

.)/,  oo 

314 

ibid. 
313—320 
109 


or  Mercldonius 


Marriages 

Matronalia 

Mx/^tu'ji  (Ships  of  War) 

Maxentius 

Maximian 

Maximin 

Maximilian 

Maximus 

Megaksia 

Mercidinus 

Mercnda 

Mesopotamia  (made  a  rrovince) 

Mela  in  the  Circus 

Melallici 

Miliarium  aureum 

Milites  subitarii 

Mimus 

Mina 

Minerva 

Missilia 

Missus  (the  Matches  in  the  Kaces)  254 

a;rarius 

Mithridates,  King  of  Pontus 

Mitra 

Mittcre  judiccs  in  consilium 

Mola 

Moncres 

Of  the  Money 

Mons  Aventinus 


244 

48 

ibid. 

46 

48 

51 

2  86 

103 

347 

303 

45 

67 

158 

75 

193 

276 

355 

109 

261 


255 
37f  38 
308,  309 
152 
101 
244 


353—356 

54—56 

55 

Caballus  or  Cuballinus  ibid. 


Mons  Csclius  54,  55 

Capitolinus  54 

Lsquilinus,  Exquilinus,  or  Kx- 

culiines  55 

Murcius  56 

Falatinus  55 

—  Querculanus,  or  Qucrcetula- 

i.us  ibid. 

— —  -  IJemonius  56 

Sjaturni  54 

Tar|)eius  ibid. 

Vaticanus  57 

Viminalis  56 

Moniorius  57 
Mors  (Capital  Punishment)     154,  156 

Mortuaria  glossaria  331 

Mourning  343 

Habit  333,  334 

Municipia  233 — 235 
Munus  pronunciare,  orproponere  270 

Muscuhis  238 

Music  of  the  Armv  213 

Mutius  32 

.Myrmillones  269,  270 


330 


"50 


\xnia 

Of  the  Names  o 

Natalis  urbis  110 

Naval  Affairs  of  the  Romans  340—346 


Oath  of  the  Soldiers 

Obolus 

Ocreae 

Oetavius  or  Augustus 

Octcres 

Od',  um 

Odoacer 

<  'fficers  in  the  Armv 

OAittJgC 

Oi}  brius 

Onme  tullt  punctum 

Opilius  Macnnus 

'07rA:wa5^s< 

Opiimates 

Optiones 

Orchestra 

Orcini 

Ordines  priml 

Orestes 

Ormisdas 

Ornare  Apparitorlbus, 

Ornari  provincia 

Osorius 

Ossilegium 

Ostia  (the  port) 

Olho 

Ovation 

Ovilia 


19(- 
o5o 
208 
40,  41 
243 
6S 
50,  51 
200—205 
343 
51 
145 
46 
242 
270 
113 
202 
66 
114 
2ol 
51 
71 
Scribis,  8tc.  138 
137 
42 
341 
240 
43 
2i7 
68, 144 


Naves  apertac 

constralae 

longje 

onerarix 

rostratx 

tectac 

— — -  turrit ae 


Augustus 


Navis  of  a  Temple 
Xaumachiae  (the  Place) 

(the  Sport) 

No  pes 

Vcro 

Nerva 

Nerva's  Arch 

Nobiles 

Nomen 

Nominis  dclatio 

Nonac  Caprotinac 

N'ones 

N'otarius 

Novennalia 

Vovi 

Novissima  verba 

Vovus  homo 

Nuclbus  relictls 

Vuma 

N'umerian 

Numitor 

Nummus 

Nundin?e 

Nuts  strewed  at  marriage -feasts 

Nymph  3ca 


244 
ibid. 
243 
ibid. 
244 
ibid, 
ibid. 
63 
68 
263 
51 
43,  52 
45 
71 
113,  114 
350 
150 
110 
107 
1J6 
34« 
113,  114 
341 
114 
317 
30 
48 
28,29 
354 
105 
317 
77 


P. 

Pacto 

Paganica  (a  sort  of  Ball ) 
Palantes 
Palaria 
Palatium 
Pales 
Palilia 
Palla 

Palladium 
Palliatje  (Plays) 
Palliatus 
Palliolum 
Palmvra 
Paludamentuni 
Pales  ("apre3e 
Pannici  terrores 
Pannonia  (subdued 
Pansa 
Pantheon 
I'antomimi 
Papirius  Cursor 
Paragaudjc 
Par  impar 
Paria  componcrc 
Parma 
Parricidium 
Pater  Patratu*. 
48 


148 
250 

54 
219 

54 

110 

ibid. 

307 

95 
278 
297 
308 
148 
301 
110 
214 

41 

40 

62 
276 

33 
303 
.347,  250 
271 
206 
109 

94 


INDEX. 


INDEX. 


Pallbiiluin 

I'utre^s  Conscripti 

ratriciuas 

Fairoiis 

Pav  of  t  lie  Soldiers 

Pecloratc 

Pecunia 

, erttraonlmana 

oriliiiaria 


P( 


r, 


157 

116 

11.3 

n#,  14  > 

^  ^  1  ^    -t^  ^  "^ 

•208 

•  Oiii. 

41 

244 
251 
24/. 
ibltl. 
2W,  :>05 
13(i 
2VH 
310 

•>/ 
280 

46 
276 

3oy 

271 

224 

47 

:";6 

41 

24.; 

98 

46 

250 

247,  250 

198 

114 

309 


ms 
Poui..th!iiTn 

Hi,,,  g.  : 

l*ciiula 
I'ri'tMi^sio  securi 

Pcroues 

Pcrsrs 

persona 

Pcrfmux 

Pcscia 

Pclusus 

Pctorc 

l'li:ilv.M\T 

Piulip 

(of  Maccdon) 

Pliilippi  (  tlie  P.attic  there) 

Pljj  Vidians  (Priests  of  Cybcle) 

Picl':' 

Pllo  tnf^onalis 

V\]  several  sorts) 

PlLtlM 

Pilo<»  ciOIKiI  I 
PilfUS 

Pilens  (the  Ue\vurd  of  (dudiutors)  272 
Pilum  .  /*'^" 

Pinarii  ^\^'^ 

Pinn.Y  -^J^' 

Piimirapi  '>  '-'^1 

Piso  •^•* 

Piteiied  Shirts  ^'^ 

Place  (^  which  reckoned  the  iiiosi  lio- 

nourable  at  \h<:  TablL)  ••  '- 

Places  for  burninij:  aivl  !  nrvin^the 

Dead 
Plani  pedes 
Pkbci^ns 
Flcb  sclta 
PhiU'i 
PoHicera  premcre 

verterc 

Follinetores 
Poniicriun) 

pvoferrr 

Pompa  Civrjn:  ;s 

Poir.pt  \ 

De  pf  nte  dejici 

Pontesi 

Pontifices 

.  niajorcs 

nilnores 

Pontifex  maxim\u^ 


Pontificum 
Pontius  Pilate 
Pontus 

Pop  a: 

Poplirut^ium 

Po[)nlares 

Popniaria 

poi-^enna 

Porta  Capena.or  Appia 

Carmentalis 

.  rluminia 

. F  him  en  tana 

\;cvia 
— —  .saliuna 

'rriuinphalis 

l»(  r»'icos 

Port  it  ores 

Portoria 

Porior  um 

Posra 

Postulatio  actionis 

Potitii 

Prseeinpji 

Pi-a-cipitatio  de  Koborc 

]*ra'CoiKS 

Pi-ieffCturx 

Pr: Pectus  alx 

_— — —  rvrrarii 

, —  classis 

fnunenti 

leg"ionis 


pra;torio 

vi^'ilum 

urbis 


I'r.xfica: 
Pra:lusio 
Pranomen 
Pr?etc.\(a,  rift.  To  •  . 
Prxtcxtatrc  (Pla\s) 
Prxtur  rerei;ri'nus 


Irbanus 


270 
112 

1  ;6,  160 
V;18.  239 

ibid. 

:326 

:•-.  54 

54 

286 

38—40 

144 

ibid. 

87—89 

89 

ibid. 

90 


Prartorii 
Pra:ti)rium 
"  r.xtors 

of  the  Provinces 

Prandiuni 
Prerogative  Ontiiry 


Tribe 


i'ricits 

Primipilurlus 

Priiuipihis 

Primus  centurionum 

Princt'ps  judiciiuu 

iuventutis 

senatus 

I'rJncipafis  constittitio 
Principes 

centurionum 

ordinuni 

i'rincipia 

Probus 

l*rocas 

Proconsuls 

Procuratores 


Do 
Ml 

4; 

102 

no 
11 

:ii,.Ki 

(■)0 

ibi<I. 

ibid. 

ibid. 

ibid. 

ibid. 

ibid. 

72,  73 

18J 

ibid. 
235 
222 
150 
83,81 
2% 
156 

i.";6 
2:).5 

20; 

v 


2  .■>!-» 


134 

201 

134 

ibid. 

.)J,  lot 

33') 

271 

350,  351 

279 
125 

ibid. 
201 
2  pi 
12^ 
V>9 
3\7 
114 

ibid 

82,  &r. 

201 

ibid. 

ibid. 
150 
25'' 

ll.> 

160 

198,  3d 

201 

ibid. 

2P' 

4.S 
2H 

137— M^' 
147 


Procuratores  Cxsaris 

Pi(tii'Mio  in  profluentem 

prokturii 

ProT)ru:tors 

Protpucstors 

Proscenium 

proscnj)ti 

Prosrriptio 

pro'asis  of  the  Drama 

Provieces 

_ (<N)n-:iular) 

. ^ —  (Prxtenan) 

i'rovinciaJ  :>iagisirates 
I'n.vineia: 
:'rovocatores* 
Public  Ways 
I'ublius  tlu'  Mimic 

Scipio 

Piilhirius 

Piiliuia  turba 

Pit  I'll  torum  circulus 

''ulvnarii 

I'ulvini 

Punishments 


140 

156 

143 

139,  140 

ibid. 

65 

156 

155 

278 

2.^5 

139 

ibid. 

137—1.  9 

233 

270 

78,  79 

277 

37 

86 

r.oo 

ibid. 

100 

348 

154—1.^9 


R. 


-.  of  the  Soldiers  222,  233 

46 

286 

72 

ibid. 


3o8 

259 

34 


'upietuis 

a  Megalensis 

!.:!)iUii.s 

Sci'ibonium 

'uticulx  or  PuticuU 

\  ra  . 

'yrrhlcc  or  Sultatio  Pyrrhica 

'vrrhus 


Q 


miadrans  ^>53 

liuailriga;  254,  .>54 

Quadi-ig-atus  -'34 

Quadrircmis  242,  244 
Quatuor  viri  viarum  curandarum    135 

Qiir.:sltores  125,  150 

Uu-vsitorcB  parricidii,  vcl  reruni 


]{adius 

liecuperatorcs 
iieferrc  ad  scnatum 
itet^^'ons  of  the  City 

IvCtCU'l'S 

Hele^ati 

Ueleii  itio 

Remus 

Kchunciar.  Consul,  &c. 

Keijctere 

Itepotia 

Uepudium 

ivlttere 

Kctiurius 

Kcview  of  the  Cavalry 

Howards  of  the  Soldiers 

Reus 

Hex  S;?crorum  or  Sacrificulus 

Rhea  Silvia 

RiciuiL-r 

Itinus  'taken  otl'  from  Persons  just 

exjjired)  *>^^ 

liobigalia  11<^ 

Robigo,  or  Ilobigus  '      ibid. 

Robur  156 

Rogatio  14^2,  153 

"*  8 


251 

147 

117 

58—60 

35 

256 

155 

28,29 

146 

27i 

318 

ibiil. 

ibid. 

268,  .70 

195 

224 

147 

91 

27,28 

51 


JO 


capitalium 
Qua:.stiones 
Quaestor  palatii 

principis 

Quxstores  Peregrini 

Urbani 

Quxstorii 

tiuKslorium 

Quaestors 

Quinarius  (Coin) 

Lucius  Quintius 

Quincunx 

Quindecimviri  (Keepers  of  the  Si- 


135,  150 
125 

128 
ibid, 
ibid, 
ibid. 

201 

216 
127,  139,  140 

354 
32 

210 


by  nine  Oracles) 
Quinquatrus  or  Quinquatria 
Quinqueremis 
Quiiupierlium 
Quiuiana 
Quinctdius 
Qtiiris  (Dca) 


96,97 
109 
244 
251 
216 
47 
315 


liogus 

Romani,  et   Cives  Romani,  the  Dif-^ 

fcrc-nce  between  them  234 

Rome  built  29 

sacked  by  the  Gauls  33 

sacked  by  Genscric  51 

taken  by  Odoacer  ibid. 

— — -  the    Circuit    of  it    in  the 

Reign  of  \'alerian  57 

number  of  inhabitants       ibid. 

Romulus  27—29 

Rosarii  206 

lUiscius  the  Player  285 

Ifudiarii  273 

Rudis  (the  Reward  of  Gladiators) 

272,  273 


S. 


Sabines  32 

Sacellum  ,  _  61 

Sacramenta  (put  for  milites,  or  mi- 
litia) li?8 
Sacrifices                                  100—102 

Sacrosancti  (the  Tribunes  so   call- 
ed; 129 
Sagittarii                                           206 
Salii                                               90—92 

Colli ni,  or  Agonenses  93 

I'alatini 


Salisubiulus 
Sallust's  Garden 
Salutatio  imperatoris 
SaU' tat  ores 
Samnite  Gladiators 


ibid. 

92 

56 

226 

120 

268,  269 


*  Printed  bv  mistv^ke  Procuratorcfi. 


INDEX 


INDEX. 


v>.> 


.>.3 


2 


ftamnites 

Sandapilones 

Sanlinia  (siihtliieil) 

Sarmatians  45 

Satire  274,  275 

Saturae  his'orix  27Ar 

Satiiram  sententias  exqulrcre,  per  Ibid. 


Saturnalia 

Sauirnian  Verses 

Scapula 

Sc<-iia 

Scipio 

Scorpio 

Scots 

Scribae 

Scriptnra 

Scutum 

Scuta  imbrirala 

ovala 

Sc  stetissc 

Scctutores 

Seculurn 

Securis 

Steal  ores 

Se  Juices 

Senibella 

Semissis 

Senmnciu 

Senaeulum 

The  Senates 

Senatorian  Acfc 

Senators 

Seiuitor's  Estate 


no 

275 

42 

65 

36,  40 

238,  i40 

46 

136 

235 

2or 

ibi(i. 

Ibid. 

148 

120 

290 

268 
254 
354 


^0  > 
354 


69 
115,  &c. 

116 
112,  ike. 

116 


Siticines 
Soccus 
Sodales  Arvalef 

Titii 

Sodahtia 
Soiee 

pulled  off  at  V'easts 

Sortitio  jiidicmn 
Spanish  Swords 
Spwilaopima 

Sportiila 

Sportum 

Stadia 

Staliones 

Status  of  a  pla} 

Stibadiutn 

Stipcndiurn 

Stola 

Stragula 

Strangidatio 

^r^tltu  Ji'. 

SubsuLc 

Siicccnturione' 

Sudes 

Suevi 

Suii-^rundarium 

Sulpiciiis 

Suovc'lauriliit 

SupplicatJo 

Svlla 


32« 
84 

s; 

i«r 
3K 

34^. 
1.51 


lOUl 

217 
27. 


v: 

20. 

217 

41 

ol 
127 

226 


r 


•Senators'  sons  (their  liberty  of  corn- 
ing into  th^  house) 
'^cnatores  pedani 
Setiatum  rtferre,  ad 
Senalus  aiithoritas 
consultuin 

coiisiilia  tacita 

indictus 

lei^itinuis 


119 
ibid 

117 

118 
ibid, 
ibid. 

117 
ibid. 

1^6 

249 
68,  144 

254 


Tabeila 


votiva 


benatu  <  jicere 

Scnio  (a  throw  on  the  Dice) 

Septa,  or  Ovilia 

Septcnfijuc^es 

Serra  (way  ofdrawingupanarmy)  212 

Servitus   '  154,  156 

Scrviiis  TulHus  SO 

Sesterces,  N\  ay  of  counting  b;.  Ci55 

Sestertium  ibid. 

Sestertius  ibid. 

ScNvrus  46,  51 

Severian  51 

Sextans  ^53 

Shoes  310 

Shows  of  wild  Beasts  360-  -26 j 

Sibvls  96 

Sicambri 

C.  Siccius  Dentatus 

Sicily  (suhduetl) 

Signs  of  (.;rief  at  FuneraL 

Silicernia 

Sinus  of  the  (iown 


41 

226 
35 

342 
296 


Tabernari  «•  (a  sort  of  Play  > 
Tabh  t  marked  wit.h  A 

marked  with  C 

marked  with  N  L 

— — —  marked  with  U  K 

Tacitus  (Emperor) 

ralent 

Pali 
Talio 

Tarentine  War 

Tarquinius  Priscus 
Tarquin  the  Proud 
Titus    I'atius 

Templum 

Temple  of  Jupiter  Capitolinus 

of  Janus 

~-  of  Saturn  i''  ' 

Teruncius  353,  ..j-* 

Tcrminalia  108 

I  essera  215,  21S 
Tesserae  etTesserarumLtidus  247--4'J 
Tesserarius  OlS 
Testudo  J." 
TfT^j-gT  24.' 
Teutones 
Theatre 
of  Scatirus 


14: 
245 
279 
145,  152 
152 
ibid 
145 
48 
355 
247—2-iu 

154,  153 
33 

30 
30,  31 
54 
61 
id. 
63 


ibid 


Theatre  of  Pompcy 

Theodoric  the  Goth 

Theodosius 

Tliracian  Gladiators 

Tiara 

'Tiberius 

Tibiae 

— —  Dextr* 

Impares 

Lydiae 

I'ares 

Phrygia. 

Sarranac 

Sinistrac 


66 
51 

50 

268,  269 

308,  309 

41 

283,  284 

ibid. 

ibid. 

ibid. 

283 


283,  :84 


'Triens 

Trierarchus 
T  §/>'§«  c 
Tripudium 

solistimum 

sonivium 

Triremis 
Triumph 
Triumviri  A.  A.  JE.  F.  F. 

capitales 

monetalcs 

nocturni 


'Tibialia 
'Tigrancs 
Titus  (Emperor 
Toga 

alba 

Candida 

libera 

— —  palmata 

picta 

praetexta 

pulia 

-  pura 
'  purpurea 

sordida 

virilis 

Togata 

Togatac  (Sort  of  Plays) 

Togatus  (opposed  to  Palliatus) 

Toralia 

I'ornainenta 

Torques 

Trabes 

I'rabcatac  (Sort  of  Plays) 

Tragedy 

Trajan 

Trajan's  Pillar 

Transactio 

Triarii 
Tribes 

of  the  City 


ibid. 

ibid. 
307 
38 
44 
395,  &c. 
295 

ibid. 
299 
300 

ibid. 
297 
300 
299 
300 

ibid. 
300 
307 
278,  279 
297 
348 


35S 

244 

243 

86 

ibid. 

ibid 

243,  244 

227,  230 

135 

134 

135 

134 

353 

247,  250 


Triuncis 

Trochus  ^^f ,  ^J^J 

Troja,  or  Ludus  Trojac  251,  256 — 260 

Trophies  72,  75,  76 

Tuba 

1  ubac 

Tubicincs 

TuUianum 

Tullus  Hostilius 

Tumuli  inanes,  or  honorarii 

Tumca 

angusticlavia 

laticlavia 


—  palmata 


Tribu  moverc 

Tribunal 

Tribunes 

(Junior) 

(Senior) 

of  the  People 

■ of  the  Soldiers 


259 
224 
301 
279 
278 
45 
74 
148 
244 
198,  201 
141 
58,  145 
127 
216 
200,  202 
192 
ibid. 
1  9 
192 
202 
ibid. 
221 
202 


Tunicatus  popellus 
Tunicae  talares 
Turmae 

Turres  mobiles  ^ 

Turris,  Tower,  (way  of  drawing  up 
an  army)  2 

Tutulus  309 

Tyrones  220 


213 

ibid. 

ibid. 

155 

30 

341 

302 

ibid. 

ibid, 

ibid. 

ibid. 

ibid, 
199 
238 


212 


65 — 67 
6t' 


Tribuiii  angusticiavii 

comitiati 

.nerarii 

laticlavii 

militum,  consulari  potestate  133 

• rufuli  202 

Tribunus,  or  Pracfectus  Celerum     133 
Tribunitia  potestate  donati  129 

Tribus  Husticx  145 

•  lirbanac  ibid. 

Tributa  236 

Triclinium  348 


V. 

Vadari  reum 
Valentinian  the  First 

the  Second 

the  Third 

Valerian 

Valerius  Poplicola 

Vallum 

Varronian  Satire 

Vaticanus,  or  Vagitanus  Mons 

Vectigales 

veil 

Velites 

Venatio  direptioni 

Ventilatio 

Venus  Genetrix 

(Throw  on  the  Dice) 

Verbera 

Versura 

Vertere  arma 

Vespasian 

Vespillones 

Vestal  A  irgins 

Vestis  convivalis,  orccenatoria 

fore  n  sis 

Veto 
Vexilia 


148 

49 

50 

ibid. 

47 

32 

217 

276 

57 

235 

32 

198,  206 

261 

271 

214 

249 

154,  155 

180 

271 

42,  44 

326,  332 

95,96 

349 

295 

129 

224 


INDKX. 


Vcxillarii 
Via   Vppia 

Viator 

Vintores 

V  icesimatio 

Vict  i  ma 

Victimarii 

Victoria 

Victoriatus 

V>'i'"Tn  pra-fectU3 

\  viratus 

VilUi  [Hiblica 

Vin(  ula 

Viiitl'cta 

Vlncx 

Visccratid 

Vitelllus 

Vitis 

VititiJ  ;>'^'-'^t'- 

Vitcs 

Vill.c 

Umbo  of  Hie  Sliiclci 

_ otthe  iiown 

Unc'ia 

V  ocun    in    itiK 

Volsci 


202     I  rbis  Natalia 
79     listrina 

12'i 


no 

338 


223 

\\  . 

100 

102 

War  .jn)\^-  declared) 

214 

Watch -word 

Ways 

154 

135 

332 

\ 

68 

155 

Xantippus 

114 

Xerxes 

238,  239 

343 

43,44 

\ 

201 

202 

( If  tlic  Koman  \  car 

222 

101 

207 

/ 

296 

354 

ZcMobia 

150 

Zosinms 

32 

Zysti 

231,232 

214 
79 


35 

46 


102—104 


48 

46,  49 

68 


SCRIPTORES 

V?/7  hi  (luoJrnm  Tomis    T/icsaun   Antiquitatinn  Romanonim  a 
Mni^no  (iK.£vio  iongcsti  biveiiiuntur. 


TOM  I. 


UCTA\'.  Fcrrarius  de  Orlj^nne  Uomanorum. 
Paiiirs  Mamitiiis  de  Civitaic  JJomana. 
f:ar6!us  .Sij-'onius  de  antiquo  jure  Civium  Komanorum 
Onupbriiis  I'anvinius  tic  Civitatc  liomana. 

de  Jmj)erio  liomuno. 

Pauliis  Manutius  dc  C'omitlis  Komanorum. 
Nicolaiis  Grnchius  de  Comitils  Komanorum. 

-". :. Uesponsio  ejusdem  ad  binas  C.  Sigouii  Ueprchensioncs 

Carob  Sigonii  posterior  cun»  Nicolao  Gruchlo  Disputatio,  (b    \  inia  Comitiis  et 


Lege  Curlaia. 


;o. 


Nicolai  (.ruchii  ad  postcriorem  C.  Si|,^onii  disj)utationcm  Ilct- 

Carolus  Sig-onius  dc  Lej-e  Curiata  Magistratuum  et  Impcratorum,  et  coram 

Jure. 
Taulus  Manutius  de  Senatu  Romano, 
.loanncs  Sarins  Zamoschius  dc  Scnatu  Romano. 


TOM   11. 

I'aulus  Manutius  de  I.egibus  Romanis. 

Antoninus  Aug-ustinus  de  Lei^ibus,  cum  Notis  Fulvii  Lrsii.i. 

(Jarobis  Sigonius  de  anti(juo  Jure  Italic. 

cle  antiquo  Jure  Provinciarum. 

de  Judiciis. 

SibrancUis  Tetordus  Siccama  de  Jucbcio  Ccntunivirab. 

Franciscus  Hottomanus  J.  C.  dc  Mag-istratibus  Romanoruni,  covvrwnxM-  Tn.-Uu- 
tione, 

^\^.  Senatu  et  Scnatus-Consulto. 

(1^  FormuHs  anticpiis. 

Nicolai  Rigalti,  Ismaelis  Rullluldi,  et  Hcnrici  Gaiesii,  Obsci-.^uuiics  uc  Fopul^ 
Fondis. 

(Jarolus  sigonius  de  NominibusRomanorum. 

Onupbrius  Fanvinius  de  antiquis  Romanorum  Nominibus. 

Josepbi  Castalionis  J.  C.  adversus  Fucminarum  Pnaiomluum  A s<jertores  Dis- 
putatio. 
— .— , ,__ —  l)g  antiquis  Puerorum  Prxnominibus. 


IWEbALR.  GRiEV.   CATALOG 


TOM.  Ill 

Vi-^nciscus  Kobortrllus  dc   Frovinciis   Romanorum,   ct   earum   distnbutior.t 

ntniie  uilministratione.  r    _  .  i 

^"'  ^ de  Judiciis,et.  oimu  cuiisuctudine  causas  agendi  aput! 

UomaMOS.  . 

lunius  UaMrlus  dc  Ilastanim  et  Auctionum  orpnc. 
Vr:inriscus  Hobortellus  de  Maj,n  strati  bus  Imperatorum 

*^  ;__ Dp  Gradibus  Ilonorum  et  Mag.strutuuin  Romanoruni 

(;tud<.  I'ancirollus  dc  Magistratibus  Municipalibus. 

De  Corporibus  ArliHcium. 

Sextus  Uiifiis  dr  Keponibus  Urbis. 

V^X^^  MTrir:;;- ".^rbruo.,  Topogr»ph.a,  cum   Not.  .neditl,   Fulv., 

;;:S''r;^:^::m:;i;^D;:^Ap;^'''Kj..sdcm  ..e  au.tuor  urbis  «egionibus 

Commtiuarius 

Mexamlri  Uonrti  K.-ma'\etas  ac  Kecens,  uumsquc  xd.ficli,  adcrud.tam  cog- 
nitioncm  exposilis 


roivi.  IV 


lanu.ni  Nardin.  Ro.iiu  Vetus  lib.  Vlll.  ex  Uid.ca  m  Latinam  Linguam  trans 

Dculi^  i^l^^ris!^  Pyramide  C.  Cestii  Kpulonis,  Disscrtatio. 

Oct^vii  l-;^'^'  '^j  ^,>^^,^,„^  ,)^^^^.„,  V.  (,[^.  Kpislolu  de  latere  ex  redificu 

vetcr.s  rudcribus  eruto,  qu.im  paries  ad  instauranduin  Panthe.  Porticum,  A 

1661,  dirueretur.  . 

Iswi  Vos.i  de  antiuua:  Urbis  Romre  Ma^nitiuline. 

oi  u    Jorrichr,,  de  antique:  Urbis  Rom^  facie,  D.sserta  .o  eompend.ar.a. 
Sovti^i  lUi  Fronlini,  de  Aqua^ductibus  Urbis  Ron.a-,  Comrr.entanus. 
'?,     V  ;    !  I'.brelti  de  \nuis  et  A<iu  uh.ctibus  Urbis  Koma:,  D.ssertat.oncs  trcs. 
l^I:::'rUi:S'A;^v;:g^^    Ls  Ko„..  ccleberrin..,  et  pnsca  Rebg.one 

uw,r     onus  M.  AirripoiC,  ill  vctcre  annulari  gcmnix 
,  u^^.    I'o!  un  i  C'  .-n?ncn,:>ri,.lus,  in  vetcrem  picturam  Nymph  ,um  refcTentem 
[.■"  ru'iaconi.  in  Colun.n  >  U..strat,x  l„scripli,.ne.n,  a  sc  conjcc.ur*  suppletam, 

MUkln'ritinpuo.us  qua  I,.  Scipionis,  F.  n.rbaU,  cxprcssum  est  clogium, 

]:::g::::t::.:rrr::X  i^- :'^-  ex  occas.o„e,  de  ^..i  uomim  tem. 

J!!!!"!!' ';;i'::d'r'Expliea,,o   ad  inscriptionem   Ang„sti.  <.u.    m   basi    est 

nbelisri  slatuti  per  SeMum  V.  I'onl.  ante  I'ortam  Hamm.am.  alias  1  opuli. 
..ctri  An'seti  mrircl  de  prlvatorum  publ.corumque  xdificiorum  Urbis  Komx 

Eversoribus  Kpistola. 

Uommentaries  de  Obelisco.  . 

loscplu  Castalionis,  dc  Columna  Tnumpbuli  Imp.  Anlonmi,  <'«"^"^^"J;^;;'^;.^ 
VS  enta  Vestij^ii   Veteris  Uom.,  ex  Lapid.bus  Farues.anis  nunc  pr.mum  m 

ueom  edita,  cum  Notis  Jo.  Bellonii.     Huic  Tomo  prxm.tt.tur  f  .ivim  Cruy  u 

Dtscriptio  faciei  variorum  locorura  Urbis  Komae,  tarn  anticpiK  quam  nov«,  m 

XV.  Tabulls  xre  incisa. 


rilESAL'R.  GRJEV.  CATALO^. 


TOM.  V. 

Jacobi  Gulherii,  de  veterl  jure  Pontificii  Urbis  Uomx,  libri  quatuor. 

Jo.  Andrea  Busii,  de  Pontifice  Maximo  Romae  Veteris,  Exercitatio  Historica. 

Ejusdem,  de  Poniificatu  Maximo  Imperatorum  Romanoruni,  Excrcita. 

tio  Historica  altera. 
Mic.  Angelus  Causacus  (de  la  Chausse)  de  insignibus  Pontificis  Maximi,  Flann* 

nis  Dialis,  Auguris,  et  instrumento  Sacrificanlium. 
Augustini  Niphi,  de  Auguriis,  libri  duo. 
»Tul.  Caesar  Bullengerus  de  Sortibus. 

. De  Auguriis  et  Auspiciis. 

*-..         —  De  Ommibus. 
-  De  Prodigiis. 


De  Terrac  Motu,  et  Fulminibus. 


.Toh.  Bapt.  Belli  Diairiba  de  parti  bus  Templi  Auguralls. 

Johannes  Pierius  Valerianus  de  Fulminum  significationibus. 

Justi  Lipsii,  de  Vesta  et  Vestalibus,  Syntagma. 

Ezechielis  Spanhemii  de  Nummo  Sm)  rnaeorum,  seu  de  Vesta  et  Prytanibus 

Gr3ecorum,  Diatriba. 
Antiquiv  Tabulae  Marmoreae,  solis  effigie  symholisque  cxsculptae,  expllcatio, 

Auctore  Hier.  Alexandre  Juniore.  Accessit  non  absimilis  argument!  exposi- 

tio  sigillorum  Zonae  veterem  statuam  marmoream  cingentis. 
Michaelis  Angeli  Causxi  Deorum  Simulachra,  Idola,  aliaequc  Imagines  aerex. 
Jlo.  Baptists  Hansenii,  de  Jure-jurando  V^eterum,  Liber. 
Steplianus  Trelierius  de  Jure-jurando. 
Erycii  Puteani  de  Jure-jurando  Antiquorum  Schediasma,  in  quo  de  Puteali  U' 

bonis. 
Marci  Zuerii  Buxhornii,  et  aliorum,  Quaestiones  Romajiar. 


TOM.  VI. 

rranciscu3  Bevnardus  Ferrarius  de  Veterum  Acciamationibus  et  Plausii 

Petrus  Berthaldus  de  Ara. 

Benedictus  Bacchinus  de  Sistris,  eorumque  figuris  ac  differentia. 

Casparus  Sagittarius  de  Januis  Veterum. 

J^azarus  Bayiius  dc  Re  Vestiaria. 

Octavius  Ferrarius  de  Re  Vestiaria. 

Albertus  Rubenius  de  Re  Vestiaria  Veterum,  pr?ecipue  de  Lato  Clavo, 

Octavii  Ferrarii  Analecta  de  Re  Vestiaria. 

,lo.  Bapt.  Donius  de  utraque  Paenula. 

Bartbolus  Bartholinus  de  Pa;nula. 

Aldus  Manutius  de  Toga  Romanorum. 

de  Tunica  Romanorum. 

. cle  Tibius  V^eterum. 

Theophilus  Rajnaudus  de  Pileo,  cacterisque  capitis  tegminibus,  tarn  aacris 
quam  profanis. 


TOM.  VII. 


Klchardus  Streinnius  de  Gentibus  et  Familiis  Romanorum 
Antonius  Augustinus  de  Familiis  Romanorum. 

49 


TJIESALR.  GRiEV.  CATALOG. 

Famili:^  Romanx  Noblliores,  c  Fiilvii  Ursini  Commcntariis. 

Notitia  Di.unilatiim  iitriiisqtic  Imperii,  ultra  Arcadii   Ilonoriique  tempora  :  ct 

in  fam  (i.  ranrirolli  J.  IJ.  I),  cclebcrrimi,  commenlarius. 
Marm'»r  Pisanum,  (k-  llonore  Bissellii.     I*aror|^oii  insciilur  de  Vctcrum  Scl- 

lis;  cura  Val.  Chenicntcllii  J.  C.     Accedit  Myodia  slve,  dc  Muscis  odori'. 

I'isanis,  Epistola. 


THESAUR.  GRiEV.  CATALOG 


TOM.  VI H. 


Vetiis  Kalcndariiim  Komanonim,  c  niarmore  dcscriptnm,  in  JEdibus  Maff.-co 

ruin  ad  Aj^rippinam. 
Petri  Ciacconii   Toletani  Note  in  vetus  Komanorum  Kalendarium. 
Fulvii  Ursini  Notx  ad  Kalcndanum  rusticum  Farncsiarum. 
Kalendarii  fragnientum,  quod  visitur  in  vFdibus  (Japranicoruni. 
Sibran(b  Siccami  Comiuentarius  in  F'astos  Kalendares  Itomanoruni. 
Aliud  V(^tus  Kilcnuariuru,  quod  in  libris  autiquis  praefigilur  Fastis  Ovidii. 
Kalendarium  J?onianun),  sub  Imp.  Constantio,  Imp.  Constantini  magni  Filio, 

circo  Ann.  Cdiristi  334,  eompoaitum. 
Lambecii  Notae  in  Kalendarium  vetus. 
Thomx  Dcmpsteri  Kalendarium  Itomannm. 
Dionysii  Petavii  Kalendarium  veins  l?omanum,  cum  Ortu  Occasuquc  Stella 

rum. 
Fetri  (iasscndi  Kalcndaritim  Homanum  compcndiose  expositum. 
Petri  Violx  Vicetini  de  vcteri   novaque  liomanoruTD  lemporum  ratione  libel- 

lus. 
Adrianus  Junius  de  Annis  et  Mensibus. 

ejusdem  Fastorum  liber. 

Joannes  Lalamantius  de  Anno  Romano. 

M,  Jacobus  Chnstmannus  dc  Kalendario  Romano. 

Franciscus  Robortellus  Utincnsisde  Mensium  appcllatione  ex  nominibuslmpp. 

Joseph'is  Scalij^cr  de  vcteri  Anno  Ronianorum. 

llionysius  Petavius  df  veteri  Anno  Komanomm. 

Samuelis  Fetiti  Eclogre  Clironologicse  de  Aimo  et  Feriodo  vctcrum  Roman 

orum. 
Wilbelmus  I-angius  dc  vcteri  Anno  Romanorum. 
Erycii  Futeani  ile  Hisscxto  liber. 
I'etrus  TalTinus  de  vctcrum   Komanomm  Anno  Sxculari,  ejusque  potissimum 

per  ludos  Saeculares  celcbritute,  corumquc  Chronologia. 
Erycii  Futeani  de  Nundinis  Womanis  liber. 

E.  Georj^ii  Tholosani  de  Synta^matc  Juris,  Nundinis  et  Mercatibus. 
Joannis  Baptista-  Relii  Diatrilia  dc  Fbarsalici  Conflictus  Mense  et  Die. 
Petri    Morestelli    Fhilomustis,   sivc  de  triplici   Aj\no  Bomanorum,    Mensibus. 

corumquc  partibus,  deque  Die  civili,  et  divcrsitatc  Dierum,  libri  quinque. 

Alypius,  sive  de  Friscorum  Uomanorum  Ferijs  liber. 

Julius  Cicsar  Hullenii^urus  de   Trlbutis  ac  Vectig-alibus  Fopuli  Komani. 
Vincentii  ('(>ntareni,  dc  Frumentaria  Romanorum  l.argitione  liber. 
JoanPiis  ShcfVeri  Agrippa  liberat(n\  sivc  Disscrtatio  de  novis  Tabulis. 
Barnabas  Bnssonius  dc  Hitu  Nuptiarum,  et  Jure  Connubiorum. 
Antonii  IlotmaMui,  J.  C.  de  veteri  Ritu  Nuptiarum  observatio. 
(le  sponsalibus,  de  veteri  Hitu  Nuptiarum,  et  Jure  Matri- 

monioriim,  item  de  Spuriis  ct  Lcgitimatione. 
Joannes  Metirsius  de  Lt  xu  Romanorum. 
Stanislai  Kobyerzykii,  dc  Luxu  Romanorum  ('ommentarius. 
Joachimi  Joannis  Mudcri  de  coronis,  Nuptiarum  prxscrtim,  sacris  ct  profanis^ 

libellus. 


TOM.  IX. 

Onuphrius  Panvinius  Yeronensls  de  Ludis  Circensibus,  cum  Notis. 
Toannis  Areoli  J.  U.  D.  et  additamenta  Nicolai  Fmell,  J.  C. 
Juhu    C.sfr  Bullengems  Juliodunensls,  Doctor  Theolops  de  Cuxo  Romno, 
Ludisque  Circensibus,  de  Venatione  Circi  ct  Amplutheatn,  ac  de  Iheatro. 
Onuphrius  Fanvinius  Veronensis,  de  Ludis  Sa^cularibus,  ^\^^!''  . 

Agesilai  Marescotti  de  Fersonis  et  Larvis,  eorumque  apud  \eterc.  usu  et  ou- 

M:^;t^"^i:^l%ecropistromachia,  antiqua  Duelll  ^l^^^l^^^J^^IJ^^J^ 
in  Sardonyche  exposita.     Cum  Notis  llennci   Gunteni    Ihulemaru,  J.U. 

Jusli'^Lipsii  Saturnalium  Scrmonum  libro  duo,  qui  de  ^l^d'>^^^^iJ'"^  evnressa 

_L_  ejusdem  dc  Amphithcatro  liber :  in  quo  torma  ipsa  loci  expres  a 

et  ratio  spectandi :  Ut  et  de  Amphitheatris  qua:  extra  Romam  sunt,  hbc.llu.  , 

in  quo  forma:  corum  aliquot  et  typi.  .      .  t^-        •     nnctratns  -x 

Onuphrii  Fanvinii  de  'I'riumpho  Commentarius,  Notts  et  Fig-..r,8  aiustratus,  a 

Jouchimo  Joanne  Mudero 


TOM.  X. 

Nicolai  Bertricrii,  de  publicis  etmilitaribus  Imperii  Romani  Juris  libri  quinque, 
Tc   ex  GalUca  in  I  atinam  Finguam  translate  ab  Henr.  Chr.  liennnuo. 

l?;;:::ci:^  F^c^r  ul^lm^^^  UaUca  in  Latinam  Linguam  versa 

„^m  G!^nnJ:!^cr"^olybii  MegalopoUtani^e  Castn^om.ns,  qu.  extant, 

cum  Notis  ct  Animadversionibus  Rathordi  Hermanm  Schebi. 
Rat.  Herm.  Schelii  Disscrtatio  de  Sacramentis, 

1 de  Custodia  Castrorum. 

de  Stipendio  Militari. 

de  Stipendio  Equestri. 

, de  Stipendio  Ductorum. 

de  Die  Stipendii. 

dc  Frumento  et  Veste. 

dc  Tribute  et  iErario. 


—  de  Victu  Militum. 

—  de  Itinere. 

—  de  Agmine  Folybiano. 
de  Agmine  Vcspasiani. 
de  Cobortibus  Legionis  antique, 
-     ..  ,•      •  r» r.u^«      n 


de  ConorliDus  i^egioms  aiui^u^. 

C.  L.  Salmasii,  de  Re  Mditari  Romanorum  liber.     Opus  posthumum. 
Jo.  Henrici  Boecleri  Disscrtatio  de  Legione  Roraana. 

Franciscus   Robortellus   Utinensts.     1.  De  Legiombus  Romanorum  ex  Dione 
lib.  4.     11.  De  Commodis,  Frxmus,  et  Donis  Militaribus.     111.  De   Poems 

Erycif'pIlle'aVif XTlipendio  Militari  apud  Romanos,  Syntagma :  quo  modus 

ejus,  hactenus  ignoratus,  constituitur. 
Vincentii  Contareni,  de  Mditari  Romanorum  Stipendio  CommentunuS: 
Michael  Angclus  Causaeus,  de  Signis  Militaribui, 
Petri  Kami,  dc  Militia  Julii  Cjcsaris  liber. 


THESAUR.  CH-EV.  CATALOG 


TOM.    XI. 

Tjftzcchlelis  Spanhemii  Orbis   Romnnus,  seu  ad  Constitutionem  Antoninilm- 

peratoris,  de  qua  Ulpianus  leg-.  17.  Dig-,  de  Statu  Homirmm,  Exercitationeti 

duac. 
Fasti  Magistratuum  Romanonim  ab  Urbe  condita  ad  tempora  Dlvi  Vespasiani 

Augusti,  a  Stephano  Vinaiido  Figfilo  suppletis  Capitolinis  Fragmentis  res- 

tituti. 
Descrlptlo  Constdum,  ex  quo  primi  ordinati  sunt ;   sive  integri  Fasti  Consu-- 

lares  quosldationos  docti  viri  hactenus  appellarunt,  opera  et  studio  Thilippi 

Lab  be. 
Tironis  Frospcrl,  Aquitani,  Chronicon  integrum  ab  Adamo  ad  Homam  captam 

a  Geneserico,  Wund.  Rege. 
Fasti  Consulares  Anonymi,  quos  e  codice  MS.  Ribliothecx  Cacsareae  deprompsit, 

et  dissertatione  dlustravit,  F.  Henricus  Noris. 
Anonymus  de  Pr.^fectis  Urbi  ex  tcmponbus  Gallleni ;  ut  et  fiagmentum  Fas- 

torum  ab  Anno  Christi  205  ad  353,  ex  cditione  ^tgidii  Bucherii. 
i:pi«;fr»Iri  Consularis,  in  qua  Collegia  LXX.     Consulum  ab   Anno  Cbristianx 

Epochs   XXIX.     Imperii    liberii   Augusti  decimo   quinto,    usque    Annum 

CCXXIX.     Imperii  Alexandri  Severi  octavum,  in  vulgatis  Fastis  hactenus 

perperam  descnpta,  corriguntur,  suppl^ntiir,  et  illustrantur.     Auctorc  F. 

Henrico  Noris  Vcroncnsi,  Augustiniano. 
Sertorii  Ursati,  Equitis,  de  Nolis  Komanorum  Comnienturius. 
liissertationes  de  Nummis  Antiquis,  divisac  in  quatuor  partes,  Auctorc  Ludo- 

vico  Savoto.     Ex  Gallica  in  Latinam  Einguam  transtulit  L.  Ncocorus. 
Alberti  Rubenii  Dissertatio  de  Gemma  Tibcriana  et  Augustxa. 

j(.  Urbibus  Neocoris  Diatribe. 

Marquardi  Freheri,  Consiliarii  I'alatini,  de  Re  Monetaria  veleruni  Romanorum, 

ct  hodierni  apud  CJermanos  Imperii. 
Kobertus  Cenalis  de  vera  Mensururum  Ponderunique  Katione. 
Lucae  Paeti  Juris  Consult!,  de  Mensuriset  Pondenbus  Romanis  et  Grxcis,  cum 

his  qux  hodie  Romrc  sunt  collatis,  Libri  quinque. 
l»risciani  Caesariensis,  Rhemnii  Fannii,  Bedx  Angli,  Volusli   Mctiani,  Balbl  ad 

Celsum,  Libri  de  Nummis,  Pondcribus,  Mensuris,  Numeris,  corumcpie  Notis, 

et  de  vetere  computandi  per  digitus  Rationc,  ab  Elia  Vineto  Santone  emen- 

dati,  ut  et  a  J.  Fredcrico  Gronovio. 
Mexandri  Scrdi,  Ferrariensis,  de  Nummis  Liber,  in  quo  prisea  Graecorura  et 

Romanorum  Pccunia  ad  iiostri  xris  rationem  rcdigitur. 


TOM.  XII. 


vincentiiis  Rutins  de  calido,  frigido,  ct  temperate  Antiquorum  Potu,  ct  quo 

modo  in  Deliciis  uterentur. 
Julius  Cd'sar  Bullengerus  deConviviis;  Libri  quatuor, 
Erycii  Puteani  rcliquit  Convivii  prisci,  turn  Ritus  alii,  et  Censura:. 
\ndrere  Baccii,  de  Thermis  veterum,  Liber  singularis. 
Francisci  Robortclli  Laconici ;  seu  Sudationis,  qux  adliuc  visitur  in  ruina  BaU 

nearum  Pisan?c  Urbis  explicatio. 
Francisci  Mariae  Turrigii  Not^  ad  vctustissimam  Ursi  Togati,  Ludi  Pila;  vitrex 

inventoris  inscriptionem. 
Martini  Lipenil  Strcnarum  Historia,  a  prima  Origine  per  diversas  Regum,  Con 

sulum,  et  Imperatorum  Romanorum,  ncc  non  Episcoporum  a^tatcs  ad  nostra 

usque  tempora. 
Marci  Meibomii,  de  Fabrica  Triremiuin  liber 


TIIESAUa.  GR^V.   CATALOG, 

Constalltini  Opelii  de  Fubrica  Trireniium,  Mebomlana  Epistola  perbrcvis  ad 

aniiCUKi. 
Isaaci  Vossii  de  Trircmium  et  Liburnicarum  consitructione  dissertatio. 
Jacobi  Pliilippi  Thomasini,  de  Donariis  ac   ?  ab  Ihs  Votivis,  liber  singularis. 
Vincentii  Alsanii,  de  Invidia  ct  F:AScin<)  V  <teriim,  libellus. 
Joannis  SheffVri,  de  Antiquorum   I'orquib'is,  Syntagma, 
Micl)aclis  Angell  Causxi  Disscrtationes  tres : — L  be   Vasis,  Bullis,   Armillls, 

Fioulis,  Annulis,  Clavibus,  Tessoris,  Slylis,  Strigilibus,  (i'lttis,   Phialis  La- 

chrymatoriis,  ct  de  Mnibus  a:neis  vota  rcferentibus. — II.  De  Mutini  Simula- 

cris, — ill.  De  il:}neis  Anti(pu)rum  Lucernis. 
Octavii  Ft-rrarii  Disscnatio  de  Veterum  Lucernis  Sepulct.ralibus,  Picture  an- 

tiqujc  Sepulcbri  Nasoniorum  in  Via  Flaminia,   delineatre   et   xre   incisx  a 

Petro  sancto  Burtolo  :  explicate  vero  et  illustrat.^  a  Joanne  Petro  Bellorio  ; 

ex  Italica  Lingua  in  Latinam  venit  Liidolphus  Neocorus. 
Jacobi  Guthcrii  dc  Jure  Manium,  seu  de  liitu,  More,  ct  Legibus  prisci  Funeris^ 

libri  tres. 
Choartius  major,  vel  dc  Orbitate  toleranda  ad  Annum  Ro^ 

bcrtum  J.  C.  Prxfatio. 
Petri  Morestelli  Pompa  Feralis,  sive  justa  Fcnebria  Veterum,  Libri  decern 


FINIS. 


It 


COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY 


0025979965 


